


Tempting Soul

by WildMagic



Series: The Soul [6]
Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: (But he's Niall's Beta), (DON'T ASK IT'S CONFUSING), (Ish) - Freeform, (Makes more sense if you read it tbh), Alpha Jay, Alpha Liam, Alpha Lottie, Alpha Niall, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Werewolf, Beta Harry, Confused Louis, Emotional Louis, Louis is the youngest, M/M, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Nouis, Omega Louis, Omega Mark, Omega Zayn, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pack Dynamics, Protective Niall, True Mates, University
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-12
Updated: 2017-05-14
Packaged: 2018-03-12 02:42:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 35,488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3340616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WildMagic/pseuds/WildMagic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><em>Niall watched him every day for two years. Even when Niall finished and graduated from college in July – he returned every day just to watch the beautiful Louis Tomlinson. Never once did he approach him; the boy was underage and Niall didn’t know if he could hold back if he introduced himself. He had made sure that every single pack member knew that Louis belonged to him and no one ever even touched the younger, human, Omega.</em><br/><em>But then, one day, Niall got the news that Louis was travelling across country to attend University. And Niall had, had to watch him go – unable to leave the pack and follow him because he was set to take over the Silver Valley pack any day. And Niall didn’t want to be the reason that Louis didn’t get everything he wanted out of life – he didn’t want to force Louis to stay at home with him, no matter how much his wolf tried to convince him too.</em><br/><em>He’d just have to wait six years till he could see him again.</em><br/>Niall spots 16 year old Louis Tomlinson across the room and he's hooked from the moment their eyes lock.</p><p>(PART OF A SERIES BUT CAN BE READ SEPARATELY! STORIES ARE NOT CONNECTED!)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Niall knows that Louis is his true mate the moment he sets his eyes on him.

** **

**Chapter 1 **

He could only be 16 – fresh out of school, starting his first week at college. He wore a dark, almost black beanie hat over his head, hiding all of his hair, apart from his windswept, brunette fringe. He had one of his large hands on top of his head, holding the beanie in place. His skin was fair, his nose was cute and his eyes were a dazzling, sapphire blue – but were hidden behind his rectangular, large, black rimmed glasses. He was dressed in a black and white striped shirt with a thin, light grey men’s cardigan. He also wore black skinny jeans (although they weren’t tight on him) and his white-trainer clad feet were cross over each other under the table. He was sat at the end of the table with a book open in front of him; he ran his long finger down the book, obviously researching something. Everything about his was perfect.

So perfect in fact that _thee_ Niall Horan, the future Alpha of the Silver Valley Pack, was unable to take his eyes off of him.

“Stop staring! You’re going to freak the kids out!”

Niall looked over his shoulders at the hiss of his best friend, and future Beta-Alpha, Liam.

Liam was tall and tanned. His eyes were a deep, chocolate coated colour and his coffee brown hair was styled in a quiff.

Niall sighed at his friend, and turned back to the boy he was watching. He didn’t know his name – or even recognise him. But then, he didn’t know everyone in his father’s pack. The blue-eyed boy, who had somehow captivated the Alpha-in-training’s attention, was sat at the end of the table. Beside him was a curly haired boy, talking to another lad opposite him. The blue-eyed boy was obviously with the other lads as he would speak up once on a while; but, Niall noticed, he looked more like the third-wheel.

Niall knew the other two lads, recognised the curly mops of one and tanned skin of the other. Harry Styles and Zayn Malik. Harry’s Dad was the pack Doctor. He had spoken to Harry a couple of times, briefly, simply because Niall often found himself paying a visit to the Med House, after getting into _another_ fight or something like that.

Zayn was the same age as Harry, both were only a year younger than Niall and Liam – the younger two lads had finished school in July and had started college for the first time on Monday. Zayn was quiet and brooding, but that was only to be expected with his past. He’d been adopted into the Styles family, making him and Harry practically brothers.

“Ni,” Liam hissed again.

“What?” Niall hissed back, snapping his head round to Liam who was logged into one of the college computers. They were in the library, doing coursework under Liam’s orders (well Liam was doing coursework – Niall was observing a gorgeous boy from across the room). Niall, however, knew that they were only doing coursework in the first week back because his father had Alpha-ordered Liam into making Niall work harder this year.

“Stop staring!”

Niall, once again ignored his best friend. He turned back around and heard Liam groan.

“Niall, I need help with this question,” Liam tried.

“Nice try, buddy,” Niall sighed. “Not going to work.”

“Ni! Come on! You’re going to scare them!”

“Who’s that?” Niall asked, ignoring Liam’s remark. He pointed over to the table where the blue-eyed lad was scribbling something down quickly.

“Niall, everyone knows the Styles brothers,” Liam remarked, in a duh tone. Everyone knew that Zayn’s last name was Malik – but they also knew the dark haired boy hated any reminder of his past and so made sure everyone knew him as a Styles.

“Not them,” Niall growled lowly. “The guy with the beanie – glasses, Omega,” He pointed out.

Liam was quiet for a moment.

“I don’t know,” Liam mumbled. “Why?”

Niall whizzed the wheelie chair round quickly so that he was facing his best friend.

“If I tell you, you’ve gotta keep quiet.”

“You can trust me, Ni,” Liam nodded.

Niall didn’t begin his explanation for a moment, looking over his shoulder to confirm his thoughts. His breath caught in his throat when the lad looked up from the book and scanned the room. His eyes landed on Niall’s for a fraction of a second longer than everyone else, before his head continued to survey the room. And that’s when Niall came to the conclusion;

“He’s human!”

“Niall… what?” Liam asked, also looking over at the Styles brothers and the blue-eyed, human Omega.

“Liam! He’s human!” Niall’s eyes were wide. He placed his elbows on the computer desk in front of him and rested his head in his hands. “Oh man, he’s human!”

“Niall? Have you suddenly got something against humans? 40% of the college population is human mate! What’s wrong with that? Are you feeling okay?”

Niall didn’t answer, leaving Liam utterly confused. Niall looked over his shoulder again, just in time to see Zayn standing up. He watched as the dark-haired Omega left.

Niall had never moved so fast.

“Stay here,” He Alpha-ordered Liam. All Alpha’s, including Liam, had the ability to Alpha-command an Omega, and if they were strong enough, Betas too. But, Niall was the son of the pack’s main Alpha – this meant his Alpha-command worked on everyone. However, he was still getting used to controlling it; his father was helping him out as it was a very difficult thing to get under control. 99% of the time that Niall used his Alpha-command, it was pure accident – like just then; but he didn’t have time to stand around and apologise before he was storming after Zayn.

He followed Zayn into the male toilets. There was no one else in there, which just made things easier for Niall. Before Zayn could attend to his business, Niall had grabbed him ad had slammed him up against the wall. Zayn had cried out in shock and protest and struggled to get out of the grip; the harsh touch was bringing back memories that he never wanted to relive.

When Zayn saw Niall, he calmed a little, before panicking even more. The stories that started with Niall pinning people to walls never ended well.

“Styles, calm down,” Niall growled lowly in his throat. Zayn couldn’t deny the Alpha-command that was still heavily threaded in with Niall’s tone and stopped struggling. He was still breathing hard, and he was fighting to keep the scared tears at bay. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

Zayn didn’t say anything, but he was watching the blonde Alpha wearily, wishing that his brother was there to protect him.

“Who’s that boy you were with in the library? The boy with the glasses?”

“L-Louis?” Zayn stuttered.

“Is that his name?” Niall asked, his hands uncurling from Zayn’s biceps at the sound of the name.

“Yeah,” Zayn nodded, moving to protect his arms from further damage. “Louis Tomlinson.”

“Why are you with him?”

“We, uh,” Zayn gulped. “We’re on the same course,” Zayn explained weakly, staring only at the ground, desperately wanting to dismiss himself and seek comfort in his brother, who was one floor above.

“But he’s human.”

“Only one on our course…” Zayn mumbled.

Niall didn’t say anything more and left as suddenly as he had come. Zayn waited for a moment, to be certain that the Alpha had left before hastily reaching into his jeans pocket for his mobile to call for Harry.

____

Niall watched him every day for two years. Even when Niall finished and graduated from college in July – he returned every day just to watch the beautiful Louis Tomlinson. Never once did he approach him; the boy was underage and Niall didn’t know if he could hold back if he introduced himself. He had made sure that every single pack member knew that Louis belonged to him and no one ever even touched the younger, human, Omega.

But then, one day, Niall got the news that Louis was travelling cross country to attend University. And Niall had, had to watch him go – unable to leave the pack and follow him because he was set to take over the Silver Valley pack any day. And Niall didn’t want to be the reason that Louis didn’t get everything he wanted out of life – he didn’t want to force Louis to stay at home with him, no matter how much his wolf tried to convince him too.

He’d just have to wait six years till he could see him again.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Louis comes home after 6 years of Uni!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay!! Hello!!  
> I have a few notes about this chapter I'll include them in the end notes though - otherwise it might spoil some parts of the chapter!!  
> Also!! I have a tumblr!! Follow me for updates!! I'll follow back - 'cause I'm not following many blogs!!  
> http://rivermagic99.tumblr.com/  
> Hope you enjoy it!!

** Chapter 2 **

_6 years later_

Louis stepped off of the coach and smiled. It was good to be back in his home town. It had been 6 years since he had called it home; 6 years since he was staying for good. He always came home for two weeks in December, to celebrate Christmas with everyone. Summer, while it was longer, was spent in London and his parents and sisters always came to visit him as it always seemed sunnier in London.

But now, after 6 years of University, he had completed his education for good and was now a qualified Drama teacher. All he had to do now was keep his eyes peeled for job openings.

The Beta coach driver was unloading the luggage, and as soon as Louis spotted his suitcase and rucksack, he grabbed them and quickly made his way through the coach station. His Mum said that the whole family was going to be there to meet him.

“Louis!” He heard someone call his name. “Louis!”

He spun around in time to see a woman with long hair and fair skin running towards him.

“Mum!” He cried happily, dropping his luggage to the floor in time for his Mum to embrace him in a bone crushing hug. Louis relayed the hug, loving the familiar smell of her Alpha scent.

“Oh, my baby,” Jay pulled out of the hug, hands on Louis’ cheeks, to get a good look at him. “I’ve missed you so much!”

“I missed you too Mum,” Louis smiled.

His Mum was everything to him. She was an Alpha – his father’s Alpha – and she took care of everyone; his Omega father, him and all of his siblings. She was always there when you needed her most and her family came above everything – family crisis? She’d take the time off work. The amount of time that she’d taken off for Louis alone was enough to have gotten her fired, let alone the amount of time that she’d taken off for everyone put together. Yet, for about 22 years, she’d had the same job.

Louis found himself with another faceful of Alpha scent as his mother pulled him in for another hug. And then, Louis was surrounded by his father and younger sisters, in the middle of one of their famous Tomlinson family hugs.

“Look at you,” His father gushed, hands on Louis’ shoulders. “All grown up.”

“Dad,” Louis groaned. “Don’t cry – you’ll set me off.”

“I’m sorry,” Mark sniffed. “It’s just – I remember carrying you… and it’s hard to believe that it was 24 years ago.” The tears started falling thick and fast. Jay walked round everyone and took Mark in her arms, leading him off to the side to calm her Omega.

Louis was left with his younger sisters. With his mother’s scent not around to mask the younger girls, Louis was able to identify another Alpha scent. He turned to Charlotte.

“When were you going to tell me you’d presented?”

“Calm down Lou,” Charlotte smiled. “It only happened over the weekend.”

“And as an Alpha? Really?”

“Jealous?” Charlotte asked, crossing her arms and cocking an eyebrow.

“No,” Louis shook his head. He was proud to be an Omega, and made sure that everyone knew that. It was just – if Charlotte was an Alpha, that meant she had higher status in the family than him. He quickly changed the subject. “Where are the twins?”

“Mum got a baby sitter. Said it would be too busy to be pushing around a double pushchair,” Felicite explained. “Dad kicked a fit last night when Mum tried to convince him to stay at home with them.”

“Darn,” Louis cast his eyes over to his parents. His father’s face was buried in his mother’s neck, so it was unclear whether the man was still crying. Jay was running a hand down his back in a soothing motion and she seemed to be whispering to him, to calm him. He had to have been really wound up.

“He missed you,” Charlotte explained. “We all did – but I think your absence hit Dad most.”

Louis continued to watch his parents with a sad look. It was clear that being away from home for so long had gotten to Mark, and Louis felt terrible. He knew he shouldn’t, but it was never his intention to hurt anyone. However, he couldn’t understand why his father was obviously upset about his return; surely he’d be happy?

“I missed you guys!” Louis exclaimed, turning back to his sisters. He was suddenly in a hug with Daisy and Phoebe. The two, older set of twins started talking to Louis about school and how much they liked secondary school. It was as they were telling Louis about how many friends they had made, that their parents re-joined them.

“Alright?” Louis asked carefully, eyes on his father, who had red, puffy eyes. He was tucked under Jay’s arm, looking delicately tiny.

“Yeah,” Jay smiled at him. She did a quick headcount, picked up Louis’ suitcase and started leading the large family out to the car park, where their newish 9-seater car was parked. Once everyone was strapped in safely, the short journey back to the Tomlinson household began.

____

It was only 10am and Niall was sleeping; Liam knew that. But this was important, and he knew that the Sliver Valley Alpha would want to know about this. He practically sprinted through the pack house and up the stairs towards the Alpha’s private quarters. He didn’t stop until he was barging into Niall’s room.

Niall shot up like no one’s business and growled low in his throat, a clear threat to whoever had disturbed him and shaken him. He was on the brink of turning, but Liam wasn’t fazed. He knew once Niall heard the news, he’d be back to his usual self.

“Louis home!”

Just like expected, Niall’s Alpha retreated and he was jumping off the bed. He dressed himself in PJ bottoms and a blue hoodie in under 30 seconds and was barging out of his room in under 30 seconds. Liam had never seen the Alpha move so fast. He was quick to follow him.

“When did he get home?” Niall demanded to know, running down the multiple staircases, 2 steps at a time.

“Jay sent us a message through the pack link,” Liam hurriedly explained as he rushed after the blonde. “He arrived half an hour ago.”

Niall stopped half way down the staircase. He turned to face Liam.

“Half an hour ago?” He asked. “I should have been notified straight away.”

“Her Omega almost slipped into Omega Space Niall,” Liam spoke, furrowing his eyebrows. “Because now Louis home, you’ll be claiming him.”

“Jay still should have made contact sooner,” Niall grumbled.

“Niall!” Liam cried. “That’s outrageous. If your Omega needs you – that comes above everything else. You know that!”

Niall frowned, before turning back around and continuing his journey down the stairs. He knew that Liam was right – but that didn’t stop his possessive behaviour wanting to know what Louis was doing at every moment. The past 6 years had been tough for him and the amount of times that he had almost made the journey to London to drag Louis back home. There were many times when Liam had to sometimes physically restrain Niall from destroying everything and everyone that was in his way – and going through his ruts were the worst - knowing that his mate was out there, but he wasn’t _there_ with him, it was agonising.

“And what exactly are you going to do right this moment?” Liam asked as they finally reached the ground floor. “You are in your pyjamas,” he pointed out.

“Has that ever stopped me before?” Niall asked, looking left and right, obviously unclear of what to do.

“No,” Liam replied. “But Niall, he’s just returned home after 6 years – maybe you should give him a day or two with his family?”

“Good morning Uncle Niall,” A young girl approached Niall, halting his reply. Niall instantly relaxed at the sight of the small girl.

“Good morning, Sophie,” Niall smiled, crouching down to her height. “How are you today?”

“I’m okay thank you,” Sophie replied, rocking on the heels of her feet. Sophie was 4 years old, she had a good relationship with the blonde Alpha, and no one could really understand why; Niall didn’t even have a relationship with the girl’s parents, before he had first met her. Sophie had just managed to warm the Alpha’s heart.

“How’s Mummy? Is she ready to pop yet?”

Sophie giggled.

“That’s what Daddy says!” She exclaimed. “She’s as big as a hot air balloon!” She held her arms out to show her over exaggeration. She held a small basket of warm cookies in her hand. “Daddy says my baby sister will be born any day!”

“Really?” Niall smiled, ruffling her hair. “That means you get to spend the day with Uncle Niall!”

It had all been arranged, as soon as Sophie’s mother went into labour, Niall – who was the only one that Sophie wanted to be left with – would watch over Sophie while the couple were at the hospital.

“Yay!” She flung her arms around Niall’s shoulders and Niall embraced her, picking her up and squeezing her close.

“I made you cookies Uncle Niall,” She beamed, showing him the basket.

“Did you?!” Niall acted shocked, like he hadn’t noticed the basket. “Oh wow! They look scrummy!” He moved her round in his grip until she was sat on his hip. He dipped his hand into the basket and pulled out one of the chocolate chip biscuits. He took a bite and closed his eyes, moaning at the taste. “They’re delicious! Did you make them yourself?!”

“No,” Sophie laughed, shaking her head. “Melanie helped me!”

“Oh, well!! We must make sure to thank her!”

Liam coughed.

“Oh, right,” Niall lowered Sophie back to the ground. “I’ve got some important Alpha things to do right now Sophie. Why don’t you go and play and I’ll come and play with you later – yeah?”

“Yeah!” She cried, pressing a soft kiss to Niall’s stubbly cheek before she turned and began walking away.

“And don’t eat all those cookies Sophie!” He called after her. “Save me some.”

“Maybe,” Sophie giggled. She turned around and waved at the Alpha. “If you finish all your Alpha things!” She then turned again, giggling more as she began running.

“That girl is around you too much – she’s even starting to sound like you!” Liam observed. Niall always used sweets to bribe Sophie into completing little tasks, his words exactly where ‘You can have these sweets if you finish the task.’

Niall hummed his agreement, nodding his head at other pack members who greeted him. For a moment, Niall just stood there. Then he pinned his hard gaze on Liam.

“Call a pack meeting!”

____

Louis gobbled Ernest up in his arms, as soon as he spotted his 1 year old brother sat on the floor of his playpen.

“Oh look at you!” He gushed as he lightly tickled the boy’s tummy. “You’re so big now!”

The little boy was weary of Louis, having no real recollection of his older brother. He had only ever met Louis twice before, once when he was born and then again when he was only 5 months old. Louis would have been surprised if the boy _had_ remembered him.

Louis witnessed as Ernest sucked in a large gulp of air before he began screaming at the top of his lungs. Louis’ eyes grew wide, as he started bouncing Ernest gently.

Upon the sound of his crying, Mark came running. Louis gladly held the baby boy out to his father. As soon as Ernest was in Mark’s arms, his crying ceased. The 17 month old rested his head on Mark’s shoulder and clamped his father’s shirt in his tight grip.

“Da-da,” Ernest kept mumbling.

“Yeah baby, Da-da’s here,” Mark shushed him as he rocked slightly.

“I’m sorry – I…”

“Don’t worry Lou,” Mark laughed slightly. “Ernie has a thing about strangers picking him up. You were the same. It’s just something with the boys in this family – the girls always loved being picked up.”

Louis seemed rather downhearted at this. He’d basically missed the part of the youngest set of twins life where they made their important relationships.

“Hey – you can help me out loads if you like – that way both Ernest and Doris will bond with you.”

“That and it’ll be good practice,” Jay observed as she walked in, with a sleepy Doris on her hip. She’d just seen the babysitter out. Doris had been put down for a nap an hour ago, but Ernest had refused to go. But now that the twins were nearing two years – an hour to two hour nap was all they really needed.

“I’m not planning on mating just yet Mum, let alone having children.”

“We didn’t plan you,” Jay pointed out, setting Doris on her feet. The girl plonked herself on her bum, not feeling awake enough to walk around.

Louis didn’t reply, grabbing a teddy from the floor and sitting down in front of Doris. He began making the teddy ‘talk’ to Doris, and his face lit up as soon as Doris’ did. He was so engrossed in playing with Doris, that he didn’t notice his mother’s eyes go glassy.

“I’ve got to go to work.”

“What?” Louis looked up at his mother from his position on the floor. “I just got home!”

Jay wasn’t talking to him.

“Are you going to be okay here?” She asked Mark.

“Course I will,” Mark smiled. “Won’t we Ernie?”

“Okay; I’ll be home as soon as I can. And Louis – how about we go for a welcome home meal tonight?”

Jay knew, as soon as she had asked her question that Louis had already forgiven her for leaving for work so soon.

____

Niall stood in front of most adult wolves of his pack. He waited 5 minutes, for any late arrivers before starting the meeting.

“As all of you know,” He began. “Louis Tomlinson is my mate. And 6 years ago, he left to attend University in London. Well, just this morning, he returned home, having graduated last week.”

The mummers that ran through the pack members stood before him were impressed mummers.

“The rules have not changed since the last time he was home. Do I make myself clear?”

He was greeted with mummers of compliance.

“If I hear of anyone who disrespects him, anyone that hurts him in any way – I will deal with the accordingly. Louis is your Luna – you will do well to remember that!”

When the group were dismissed, 10 minutes later, only one pack member replied. Niall was not surprised that it was Johannah Tomlinson.

“Alright Jay?” Niall asked, stepping down from podium.

“I, um… I was just wondering; when are you planning on having Louis move in with you?”

Niall pursed his lips as he thought it over.

“Honestly – if I had my way, he’d be here with me now. But, I expect him moved in with me before 2016. 5 months is enough time, right?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay; notes on the chapter;  
> 1\. I changed the length of time that Louis is at Uni from 4 years to 6 years. I researched how long it would take to become a Drama teacher. 4 years to complete the Drama award and an extra 2 years to receive the teaching certificate (it can take anything from 6 months - 2 years to achieve the teaching certificate depending on the age of the children you want to work with - and Louis wants to work with secondary school kids - that's High School to you Americans! :D)  
> 2\. Jay and Mark and mated!! Jay is the Alpha and Mark is the Omega - for no particular reason really, I just didn't want to be cliché and so mixed it up a bit!  
> 3\. Mark is Louis', Ernest's and Doris' biological father. It's a little weird, yes - but I just thought it would make more sense for the time being. In this universe mating is for life - and I just assumed, seeing as we all know Louis as "Tomlinson" and Louis' sisters (excluding Ernest and Doris) are Mark's daughters, it just made more sense.  
> 4\. Jay is a werewolf - Mark is not. Everyone is either A/B/O in this universe; however Werewolves are even more so. Human Omega's do not experience heat and only Werewolf Pack Alphas experience Heat.  
> 5\. None of the Tomlinson kids know anything about the werewolf side of their family; they do not know that their mother is a werewolf. This is because their wolf gene is dormant, until and IF they find and share skin-on-skin contact with their mates.  
> As a side note;  
> I don't know if you have noticed, but I put gifs at the beginning of each chapter!! It would be great if you have a favourite Nouis gif that you could send me the link of!! If I like it, I shall include it!!  
> Feedback is appreciated!!  
> xxRiverMagicxx


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Louis doesn't have much luck job hunting and Jay's boss pays a visit to the Tomlinson household.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh gosh!! I am so so sorry for my lack of updates recently!! I have been busy making lemonade with the lemons that life has chucked at me!!  
> Seriously, i suffered from a bout of writers block and have only just recovered from it and at the same time that i was recovering from it life decided to get in the way and everything just seemed to happen at once!!  
> BUT GOOD NEWS!!!! I ONLY HAVE 9 ASSIGNMENTS LEFT!! I am nearly finished my college course with only 9 assignments left to do (and that's nearly 8 because i'm half way through one at the moment!) This is good news because it means I will get more time to UPDATE!!!!  
> I seriously cannot thank you guys enough for the support that I receive from this serious!!!! You guys make me smile day-in-day-out and I love these stories as much as you all do!!  
> So, to celebrate me recovering from writers block fully now and that I only have so many assignments left;  
> Here is a 3,600 word long chapter!!  
> ENJOY!!

** Chapter 3 **

Louis was sat in the kitchen, with his laptop out on the table. He was currently surfing through countless job application sights, trying to find a local school that was in need of a drama teacher. He had found one, about 2 hours ago – but the school had been looking for an Alpha teacher.

Louis had been awake for a couple of hours now, unable to sleep. During University he had been up at 4:30am every morning – he would take an hours run around campus and back to his dorm for 5:30am. Then he had an hour and a half to take a shower, eat breakfast and get himself ready for the day. When 7am ticked round he was heading to the library to do some homework or studying, before his first lecture or class started at 8. It had been a hard routine to get into, and it was going to be a hard routine to get out of. So when 4:30 had ticked round this morning, he had been up and rearing to go.

He hadn’t gone for a run, deciding he needed a break from normal routine. Instead he had made himself a cup of Yorkshire tea and had set his laptop up so that he could go job hunting. Needless to say, the 3 hours he’d been looking had been pointless.

Louis had been so engrossed in his searching that he paid no attention to the house slowly waking up. He didn’t hear Doris start crying, in need of a nappy change and he didn’t hear the twins clambering around. He didn’t acknowledge Charlotte and Felicite squabbling over who was going to shower first or his mother telling everyone to shut up because “Louis’ still in bed.” And he certainly didn’t know that his father had walked into the room with the youngest twins on his hips, until he deposited Ernest in Louis’ lap.

Louis’ instinctively wrapped an arm around the baby boy, blinking a few times out of surprise. He could hear everything now, and was surprised that he’d missed it all – considering how loud everyone was being. He looked down at Ernest who was still a little sleepy and was sucking vigorously on the dummy in his mouth.

“Morning little man,” Louis spoke quietly, pressing a gentle kiss to his head of hair.

“You’re up early Lou,” Mark commented, moving round the kitchen with the ease and grace of an Omega. He still clutched Doris to his hip as he prepared breakfast for everyone. Louis admired his father at work – Mark was working faster and more efficiently than Louis ever could; even if Louis wasn’t holding a wriggly 17 month old and only making breakfast for himself.

“Been up since 4:30,” Louis yawned, shutting his laptop down and pushing it a little away from him. He decided to give up with his search for work just now.

“Oh, wow Lou,” Mark shook his head a chuckle escaping his lips as he began buttering toast with one hand. “Why so early?”

“It’s what I used to do for Uni,” Louis mumbled, looking down when Ernest began wriggling in his lap. The little boy looked wide awake now and was trying to escape from Louis’ lap. Louis took his baby brother under the arms and lowered him down until his sock-clad feet touched the floor.

Seeing her brother walking around the kitchen made Doris even wrigglier and she too wanted down. When Mark set her down she stalked straight over to her brother and cocked her head at him. Ernest broke into smile and Louis’ heart warmed as Doris initiated a hug with her twin.

“I don’t envy you Lou,” Mark chuckled. “What were you up to anyway?”

“Job hunting,” Louis explained. Now he didn’t have a baby in his hold, he jumped up to help his Dad. He set about slicing a mixture of different fruits for everyone to have with their breakfast cereal. “Couldn’t find anything though. Nothing seems to be going.”

“Nothing?”

“Well – there’s a school about 10 miles from here who are looking for an English teacher… sadly I studied in Drama. Or there’s one about 16 miles away looking for a Drama teacher. An Alpha teacher.”

Mark chuckled.

“Don’t worry son, you’ll find something soon.”

“I hope so.”

The conversation quickly returned to Louis’ early morning, and Louis was explaining to his father his usual routine. Mark then talked him through the morning routine, which had changed since he’d last been home because of the twins’ arrival, and pointed out where he could help. All the while, they kept their eyes on the two infants.

It was as Louis was placing the bowl of chopped fruit, and a selection of cereals on the table that Charlotte barged into the room, closely followed by Felicite.

“Dad! Lottie used my shampoo! She knows that it’s mine!”

“It’s everyone’s Felicite!” Charlotte snapped, backing herself up. “And besides – I believe I brought it the other day!”

“You didn’t! It’s mine!”

“Girls, girls, girls!” Mark called, hands waving to grab their attention. They both stopped their petty arguing and turned to look at their father, scowls on their faces.

“You’re both pretty!” Louis remarked as well as he grabbed the toast rack Mark had just finished filling and placed that in the middle of the table as well.

“That’s enough squabbling please girls,” Mark placed his hands on his hips in true Omega fashion. “Can’t you just get on with each other? It’s shampoo – we can get some more!”

Still grumbling quietly to each other, the two sat down opposite each other at the table. Mark started up the over, ready to cook some eggs for Jay – sunny side up, just how she liked them. Daisy and Phoebe skipped into the room, arms slung together. Jay followed in shortly after, her hair wet, clearly just having got out the shower.

Jay had arrived just in time, for Mark swopped in and placed a plate of egg on toast in front of her. Jay thanked him quietly, and pulled his collar down towards her, placing a loving kiss on his lips. Their kiss lingered for longer than was necessary, yet when they pulled away, Jay kept Mark pulled close to her.

“You should let me make breakfast sometimes love.”

“I fear dear,” Mark spoke lightly. “That at this point, you wouldn’t even have toast in the toaster.”

Jay laughed and kissed her mate again quickly.

“Okay, you win.”

“Right,” Mark clapped his hands together. “Lou – shall we get the twins ready for breakfast?”

“Nana?” Doris asked innocently, toddling over to Mark’s ankle.

“Yeah baby girl,” Mark crouched down. “You can have some banana for breakfast!”

Louis wasn’t too sure exactly what his father wanted him to do – he seemed able enough to handle the two by themselves… but apparently he needed the experience, ‘cause he was an Omega.

“Shall I?” Louis motioned to the cupboard, where he knew from experience that was where the high chairs were kept.

“Seeing as Lottie doesn’t seem to be eating breakfast,” Jay spoke loudly, catching the attention of her oldest daughter. “She can get the highchairs,” She looked over at Louis. “You can get Ernie, love.”

Louis nodded once, ignoring the bubble of argument coming from Charlotte.

“Ernie,” Louis called his attention. Ernest looked over from his spot by the back door. He had his hands on the door, head titled upwards slightly, clearly trying to see out of the door’s window. Because he wasn’t tall enough, he couldn’t see. “Breakfast time mate!”

Louis crouched down behind his baby brother, not wanting to just pick him up and have him start screaming again. So instead, he used his hands to gently tickle at the toddlers sides.

“You hungry bub?”

“Park!” Ernest demanded, turning to look at Louis. Louis looked taken aback at how clear the word was.

“That’s his favourite word!” Daisy commented loudly from the table. “Ernie loves the park!”

“We can go to the park after breakfast? Would you like that bub?” Louis smiled, tapping Ernest’s nose. He decided to just take a chance and he picked Ernest up, settling him on his hip. The 17 month old didn’t cry, he squirmed a bit but as soon as he realised he was able to see the back garden now he stopped.

“Park,” He pointed to the window, looking to Louis and then back again.

“Later,” Louis laughed. “Breakfast first!”

“Fast, fast!” Ernest starting stating, jumping as best he could in Louis arms.

“Okay, okay,” Louis couldn’t help but laughing at Ernest’s eagerness. He lifted the boy into the air, holding him under the arms. He started making aeroplane noises as he weaved Ernest around the room, towards his highchair, which had now been set out.

Ernest was laughing loudly and Louis put on a heavy accent as he got closer to the chair. “Permission to land Sir!” And another voice, higher this time and posher; “Permission granted.” He continued to make aeroplane noises, until he had Ernest sat in his highchair. “The eagle has landed; I repeat the eagle has landed,” He spoke in the first, heavy accent as he clipped the straps together. He then leant over the back of the highchair and placed multiple kisses over Ernest’s face.

Ernest hadn’t stopped laughing, and didn’t until Louis placed chopped banana and strawberries on his highchair tray. Only when Louis sat down did he realise that his Mum and Dad were smiling fondly at him.

“What?” He asked, reaching forward for a bowl and the Weetabix.

“You’re a natural!” Mark was smiling fondly, as he placed some more banana on Doris’ tray when she demanded some.

“And I reckon,” Jay spoke up, passing the jug of orange juice to Phoebe. “That you are going to be Ernie’s favourite sibling from now on.”

“Yeah, well…” Louis shrugged, trying to not show how much he enjoyed the praise.

The family sat around the table, eating breakfast and chatting quietly between themselves. Louis talked to Felicite and Phoebe about school and their friends and got hit a couple of times in the head with grapes from Doris. Jay suddenly spoke up loudly, catching everyone’s attention.

“My boss is paying a visit today.”

“What?” Mark declared, putting his mug on the table. “Why?”

Louis wasn’t oblivious to the look that Jay sent to Mark.

“Oh…” Mark trailed off, eyes returning to his empty plate. “Right.”

“What?” Louis and Charlotte asked at the same time.

“Nothing; my boss will be paying a visit today – and I want everyone on their best behaviours.”

“Right, well – I’ll take the twins to the park and get them out of the way then. That’ll be one less thing for you to worry about.”

“No!” Jay cried, startling Louis. His eyes were wide, and he leant back as if he had been hit. She took a deep breath. “I mean – my boss would like to meet everyone.”

Louis took a moment to reply, but smiled after a moment.

“Uh, yeah – sure.”

“I’m sorry Louis,” Jay tried again. “I didn’t mean to snap. It’s just…” She hurried to think of a lie on the spot. “This has been planned for a long time now, and it’ll do wonders for my career.”

“You should have just said in the first place Mum,” Louis brushed it all off, shrugging. “Its fine – I get it… perfect happy family, right?”

“That’s exactly what we are!” Mark declared, latching onto Jay’s hand, squeezing it reassuringly. The two looked at each other, and Jay could easily read the support that Mark was sending her way. She smiled back at him fondly, her eyes full with love.

____

“We’ll have Louis sit and entertain the twins,” Jay whispered as she and Mark cleared up the breakfast stuff.

“Oh, come on Jay!”

“Niall will like that.”

“Yeah – but Niall should be able to see Lou as Louis!”

“Mark,” Jay sighed, holding the tea towel she was using to dry up plates and bowls, limply in her hand. “Being Luna of a pack is not just about being the Alpha’s mate! The Luna is the packs mother. That’s a hell of a lot of responsibility Mark… It would be good for Niall to see that he’s good at it.”

“I don’t know Jay,” Mark continued to defend his son. “He’s just a baby himself.”

“He’s 24 Mark!”

“Still,” Mark grumbled. “He’s my baby.”

Jay’s heart warmed and she couldn’t help but wrap her arms tightly around her mate.

“Oh hunny; he’ll always be our baby.” She kissed his forehead and held his face in her palms. “But, we’ve got to get ready to let him fly the nest. You know Niall wants him moved in the pack house by December.”

“I know,” Mark’s voice was suddenly full of sadness. “I hate this. We haven’t even given him the choice! I feel so helpless.”

“Mark baby; don’t start crying,” Jay bugged quietly as Mark began sobbing. She too didn’t sound too pleased about the situation.

When Mark and Jay had first met, Mark knew nothing of the werewolf world. Jay knew that they were mates, destined to be – but she didn’t want to bring Mark into the world she lived in; it was dangerous, even for a wolf let alone a human. Of course, Mark had been attracted to Jay, more so than he was any Alpha – but he hadn’t thought anything of it, it had just been another stupid crush back then. But then things had started to get serious between them, without either of them realising and before they knew it, Mark was pregnant with Louis. They weren’t even mated and it was frowned upon to be unmated and with child; so naturally, Mark, who had been ready to mate with Jay for months was begging to mate. Jay had to sit down and explain the werewolf world to him (and even show him, because Mark hadn’t believed her) and had then told him to rethink wanting to mate with him. Did he really want their child to grow up in such a world? Did he really want to be mated to a monster? Mark had thought about it seriously, for days, but in the end he always came back to the same conclusion – he loved Jay more than anything in the universe! He didn’t care what he had to do to be with her… he would be with her. When Louis had been born, the parents were fully mated and had agreed that Louis and any more children they had would know nothing of the werewolves.

That was until Jay got the news 8 years ago that the Alpha’s son, Niall had found his mate – the pack’s future Luna. She had been happy for the boy at first, finding your true mate was a big deal… but then she had found out that it was her Louis, and she wasn’t sure how she felt.

“If I could change it, you know I would.”

“No,” Mark shook his head. “This is what’s right. Louis and Niall were meant to be – just like you and me. I know,” He stopped as he began whispering. “And this comes from experience,” His volume rose back to its pervious volume. “That, should he be given the choice to this – Niall is what he would choose.”

“Oh, you’re right,” Jay leaned down to kiss Mark’s lips. “You are so right!”

“Mum! I think your boss is here!” Felicite called loudly from the living room.

“Shit!” Jay cursed, moving to pull away from Mark only to be pulled down again and have Mark lead the kiss.

“Love you.”

Jay’s breath had caught in her throat.

“I love you too.”

Mark followed her out of the kitchen and went into the living room.

“Louis,” He called, head popping round the door. “You’re Mum’s boss _is_ here. You’re on baby duty!”

Louis looked up from his phone, he had Doris in his lap playing with a rattle while Daisy was entertaining Ernest over in the toy corner of the room. Louis nodded, but didn’t get up.

“Louis,” Mark’s firm voice was nothing on Jay’s, but it had grabbed Louis’ attention properly. “Give me your phone and get over in that corner please. This is important to your mother and you can help by keeping the twins busy.”

“Yes Sir,” Louis spoke sarcastically, standing up, with Doris in his arms. He handed his phone over to his father as he passed, plonking himself down on the floor. Doris clambered off of her oldest sibling and crawled over to the wooden blocks that Ernest was playing with.

“Daisy,” Mark called. “I could use your help in the kitchen making drinks.”

Daisy was quick to jump up and leave the room.

“Louis… just… one more thing.”

“What is it Dad?”

“Don’t…” Mark didn’t know how to put it without it sounded weird. “Don’t touch the blonde guy. Okay?”

“That Mum’s boss?”

“Yep. Just, don’t touch him, okay?”

They could hear the chatter that was just down the hallway.

Louis couldn’t help the lingering, weird look he sent the man.

“Oookay.”

Mark nodded, seemingly happy with his response before disappearing.

Louis stared after him for a moment, slightly confused, before he felt Ernest using his knee to help him stand up. Ernest’s hand fell against his face and Louis laughed as he let his attention be grabbed by the youngest set of twins.

“Are you building a tower bub?” Louis asked, grabbing Ernest and moving them closer to Doris and the wooden blocks.

“Up!” Doris exclaimed happily, pointing at the 4 block tower she’d just built.

“Eh-oh,” Ernest exclaimed, hands turned up as he looked to Louis.

“Eh-oh,” Louis agreed, nodding his head and laughing. “Let’s build it again!”

He placed the first two blocks down on top of each other and Doris followed his suit placing another down.

“Do you want a go Ernie?” Louis asked, picking up a yellow cube and holding it out to his little brother. Ernest was quick to take it, but it went straight to his mouth. “Oh,” Louis exclaimed. “No, bub, we don’t put it in our mouth.”

“Ick!” Doris declared at the same time.

“Ick?” Ernest cocked his head at Louis.

“Yeah,” Louis nodded. “Ick.”

Ernest held the block back out to him, Louis laughed half-heartidly and ruffled Ernest’s thin blonde hair.

“Put it on the tower,” He encouraged. “Look,” He picked up a blue block and placed it on the top of the 3 blocks already built.

Ernest put the cube on top of Louis’.

“Yay!” Louis clapped his hands, and before he knew it both twins were doing the same.

“And in here, we have the oldest and the youngest of the family,” Louis looked up at the closeness of his mother’s voice.

She was stood in the doorway with a blonde man stood next to her. He did _not_ look like a business man, let alone his Mum’s boss. Louis even had to look around the two, to make sure no one else was there. The guy she was with was like the breeze on a summer’s day; he was stunning with his dyed-blonde hair and sparkling blue eyes. He looked a little young to be ‘boss’, and he wasn’t exactly dressed the part either with his black skinny jeans and red t-shirt. Over his shoulders was a grey cardigan-like jumped that matched his skin tone perfectly. The summers sun breaking through the window made the man seem brighter and the atmosphere he clearly carried round with him seemed to fill the room.

He was very clearly an Alpha – and Louis wasn’t sure he’d ever smelt someone who gave off such a strong Alpha scent – but this guy… he had something about him that had grabbed Louis’ attention, but Louis didn’t know exactly what that was just yet.

Louis hadn’t notice he was staring until the beautiful blonde walked further into the room.

“The babies are Doris and Ernest,” She pointed them out. “They’re only 17 months old. And then, Louis; who’s due to turn 25 in December.”

Jay then turned to Louis.

“Lou – this is Niall Horan. He’s my boss.”

Louis tried not to let the laugh bubble up onto his face at that. There was no way in hell that this guy could be his mother’s boss.

He managed to keep a straight face as he titled his head up to look at the blonde Alpha. He shielded the sun from his eyes.

“It’s nice to meet you Mr Horan.”

Niall just beamed down at him. Louis missed the love and adoration on the man’s face, completely oblivious to it.

“Please, call me Niall,” The man held his hand out.

Louis furrowed his eyebrows, looking over at his mother who widened her eyes at Louis in warning – Louis couldn’t work out whether this was warning for him to shake or not shake Niall’s hand.

“Niall,” Louis agreed, placing his hand in the blonde’s larger one.

Their grip lasted longer that was really necessary and Louis couldn’t help the excitement that crawled up his arm and engulfed him at the touch – come on, he was shaking hands with possibly the hottest guy he had ever seen, who wouldn’t feel excited?

Niall and Louis were basically lost in each other’s eyes and were only brought out of their trance like states when Ernest knocked over their block tower again and declared loudly.

“Eh-oh!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I worked really hard on this chapter in between everything that happened. So I'm sorry if it's not that eventful!!  
> I did have a whole lot more stuff planned for this chapter, but I wanted to get something posted AND it seemed like a good place to end it!!  
> That stuff that I had planned will just fit into the next chapter!!  
> Feedback is appreciated!!  
> xxRiverMagicxx


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Louis goes into heat...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay!! Here we go!! Chapter 4!! I could have carried on writing this chapter and would have too - but I've got things to do tonight and was worried I wouldn't get this finished in time!! And I wanted to publish something tonight, before I go back to college!! So - just like I did with Dark Soul, I will work on Chapter 5 of this next!! I really hope you enjoy this chapter!!

** Chapter 4 **

The first time Louis woke, it was a measly 2:30am. He had woken, feeling really hot. He kicked the cover off the bed and turned over, falling straight back to sleep again.

The second time Louis woke, it was 4:10am. He was, again, really hot. He turned around, trying to cool down on the cooler side of the bed – but that didn’t help at all. He stood up and made a journey downstairs to drink a cool glass of water. That didn’t help cool him at all and he stripped down to his tight boxers when he returned to his room. This helped relieve the heat a little and he led back down and fell asleep in 10 minutes.

The third time Louis woke, it was 5:20am. This time, he felt like he was outside on a summer’s day, standing right underneath a midday, 30 degree sun. He was sweating and for some reason he was hard in his boxers, but felt no arousal at all. He decided he must be coming down with something. He groaned in discomfort as he flung his legs over the edge of his bed and stood up. He stretched gingerly, his body feeling tired and heavy. When his bedroom window was pushed wide open, Louis basked in the cool, crisp, early morning air that hit him. He sat on the windowsill for a couple of minutes, palming himself through his boxers. The cool air and the attention he was now giving his hard cock proved to relax and de-stress him. He was quick to change into a clean pair of boxers as soon as he orgasmed and climb back into bed; his body demanding he sleep. As soon as his body hit the mattress, he was out like a light.

The fourth time Louis woke, it was 5:50am and he felt like he was on fire. There was so much going on with Louis’ body, that he didn’t know what had woken him. It could have been the heat; it could have been his hard, painfully aching cock; it could have been the need (for what, Louis didn’t know) coursing through his body; or perhaps it was his burning asshole, something that Louis had never experienced before. Everything around him was hazy, as he groaned in pain. His body was asking for something, needed something – but he didn’t know what exactly. He curled up on himself and tried to will himself back to sleep, but to no avail.

____

Jay was surprised when she woke up to a silent house. Mark was still curled up in her arms, head on her chest and sleeping peacefully. There was no crying infants and now squabbling teenagers. She was still half asleep as she turned to view the time on the digital alarm clock ( _6am_ ), but her wolf was wide awake. And that was why Jay had been oblivious to the heavy, sweet scent in the air.

When she paid attention to her pacing wolf, the scent hit her tenfold and she blinked a few times out of shock, believing that she was dreaming. And then she remembered the handshake that Niall had initiated with Louis just yesterday. Now Louis had experienced skin-on-skin contact with his true mate his wolf gene was no longer dormant; and Louis’ newly-born wolf had gone straight into heat; she should have seen this coming.

Jay slipped out from under Mark, who stayed sleeping, and moved swiftly to Louis room. The scent of heat was heavy in the air, but was in no way arousing to Jay. This was because Jay’s wolf recognised the heat of her son’s wolf; the scent of a family member’s heat was not arousing, but was still heavy and clogged the air.

The room should have been warm, but it was freezing cold. The window was wide open, and Louis was curled up, in on himself, only wearing his boxers and was not covered at all.

“Mum?” Louis whimpered, scenting the Alpha woman as soon as she entered. He poked his head up from his foetus position, relieved to see the familiar woman. She would look after him now.

“Oh Louis,” Jay scolded lightly, her tone soothing, as she moved across the room and pulled the window shut. She then hurried back to the bed and scooped Louis up tightly in her arms. “It’s alright Lou.”

“Mum, I…” Louis was embarrassed. He was still hard, and his hole was still burning – Louis had realised that it was burning with want. He didn’t want his mum knowing how hard he was.

“I’m so sorry,” Jay whispered before she sent out an urgent message directly to the Alpha, she knew Niall would come running, despite the time.

“Why did you shut the window?” Louis complained, as he tucked himself further into his mother. He used his hands to cover his crotch, not so subtly, and yawned. He felt slightly calmed by the touch of his mother. But he was still hot, sticky with sweat; if he’d been able to get himself up he would have showered, but he could barely uncurl himself without it hurting somewhere (mainly his asshole).

“It’ll make you ill Lou,” Jay explained, running a hand through his damp hair. The touch, the feel of nails on his scalp, made Louis moan and tilt into the touch. He didn’t care that he was nearly 25; he was sick, he needed the attention that he got from his mother.

“I’m already ill,” Louis moaned. “I’ve never felt like this before Mum, it hurts.”

“It’s called a heat Lou.”

“That’s fitting,” Even while he was feeling ill, he tried to make light of the situation. “Considering that’s what it is – hot!”

“Well,” Jay chuckled slightly. “Yeah, that’s the reason it got its name. But it’s a lot more than just feeling hot. It’s going to last roughly a week, but it lessons day by day.”

“A week?” Louis grumbled, turning his face into Jay’s shoulder.

“Unfortunately. And you’ve got that need running through your veins? The burning?” Louis groaned because what Jay said was all true, but the fact that she knew _exactly_ what Louis was feeling right now was rather embarrassing. It was a rather awkward conversation to be having with her adult-son; she felt like she was giving Louis the sex talk again. “That need to be filled?”

“Mum!” Louis cried out, deciding that was the final straw. “No!” He was in denial. Hearing it being said out loud made him realise, that was exactly what his hole was demanding. Sure, Louis had always known that he’d liked the same sex; his parents knew as well and were really supportive of him. But, Louis decided, this was worse than the sex talk he’d had when he’d been 12.

“I’m sorry Louis,” Jay apologised, hands coursing through Louis’ hair again. “But… it’s all part of your heat.”

“I’ve never heard of this heat before,” Louis grumbled lowly. He wasn’t too sure whether he believed her; everything she’d said so far had been correct; but it sounded weird and to last that long – it sounded like a girl’s period.

“That’s because…” Jay didn’t know what to say. How do you tell your son that he’s half werewolf, without telling him? “Because… it only happens to select people.”

“So, why me?”

The pause was so long, that Louis forgot even having asked the question. He was now too focused with keeping his hips still. Jay really didn’t know how to answer Louis, without telling him the truth. She didn’t want to stress Louis out any further than he already was; introducing him to the werewolf world right now was not what Louis needed. Right now, while he may have only met Niall the once and had barely talked to the guy, his mate is what he needed.

Jay’s wolf sensed the pack Alpha arriving.

“Someone’s at the door Louis,” Jay explained as she lowered Louis back down to his mattress. “It’s Niall – my boss, remember?” Louis whimpered, latching onto his mum’s pj top.

“Don’t leave.”

Louis didn’t question why his Mum’s boss was arriving at the house at 10 minutes past 6 in the morning.

“It’s alright love,” She pressed a kiss to his forehead. “Niall’s here to help. He’ll help you.”

She was quick to leave, not leaving room for Louis to complain.

____

As Niall arrived on the porch, wearing checkered pj bottoms and a grey Henley, the front door of the Tomlinson household opened. He didn’t stop to thank Jay, walking straight into the house and heading for the stairs. That was definitely heat that he could smell, and it was definitely Louis’ heat. He took the stairs two steps at a time and followed the scent.

He walked through the door of his mate’s bedroom to find the Omega curled up on himself, rutting against a pillow and groaning in discomfort. Niall gulped and had to steady himself on the doorframe. As soon as he had set sight on the boy, his half-hard cock had hardened in an instant and he could have easily let his inner Alpha take over. But he kept a tight leash on the wolf.

Louis looked up when he sensed, and smelt another Alpha in the room. It was Niall, his mum’s boss. In the mere minutes since Jay had told him who was at the door, he’d forgotten in his fogged over, heat driven mind. As soon as he set eyes on Niall, his body was screaming to jump him. The need that was coursing through his body; he finally realised what his body wanted – Niall. But he would move heaven and hell before he admitted that.

“Mum’s,” He gasped out. He’d stopped rutting against the pillow and moved to push his sweaty fringe back. “Mum’s downstairs I think.”

Niall nodded once and took a step forward. Louis’ hands flew out in front of him.

“No! No!” He ordered quietly. “No! Stay back! I’m ill. I think it might be contagious.”

Niall would have chuckled if his Alpha was not fighting everything to break free. Instead he focused on keeping the wolf at bay, wanting to hold Louis to try and calm himself and the Omega.

“It’s alright Louis,” Niall tried. “I just want to help,” He took another step forward and held his own hand out for Louis to touch. “Is that alright?”

“What if you get my illness?” Louis whimpered, his fingertips brushing over Niall’s palm and dancing around his hand. The action remind Niall of a dog, or a wolf, that sniffed experimentally at something new or suspicious.

“You’re not ill baby,” The pet name slipped from Niall’s lips before he could stop it. But Louis hadn’t reacted to it in any way, as if Niall had said his name. “You just need your mate. Your Alpha,” As he said this, Niall moved forward again, his hand still outstretched. He placed it carefully and gently on Louis’ head and when Louis didn’t move away or make a noise of complaint, he threaded his fingers into Louis’ knotty, sweaty hair; Louis found the feeling comforting. “Let me help you.”

Louis groaned and sat up more, leaning into the hand on his head. Niall moved closer again, still with his fingers tangled in Louis’ hair. He sat on the edge of the bed and let Louis crawl towards him.

Louis didn’t know what it was about the Alpha, but Niall was just what his body needed. And now that Niall was there in the room, touching him, Louis knew Niall would help take the heat and the pain away.

Louis experimentally tilted his head towards Niall’s shoulder. He didn’t want Niall to think, no matter how much his body was telling him to jump the blonde, that he was pushing himself onto him. But when Niall opened his arm, Louis fell quickly into his side and sobbed as tears began spilling down his face.

“Oh, my poor baby,” Niall soothed as he rocked from side to side. It would have been easier to have Louis cradled in his arms, but (just like Louis) he didn’t want the Omega to believe he was pushing things. “It’s alright. You’re so good Louis, eh? Yeah,” He pressed his lips to the top of Louis head. He shushed him gently.

“You’re feeling so hot and needy, hard, empty and confused. I know sweetheart, I know. It’s alright. I’m here now,” He continued to shush the crying Omega. “I’m going to help you okay. Help you as much as you need.”

“No!” Louis cried out, pushing out of the hold of the Alpha. He knew what he wanted – needed; he needed Niall to make love to him. But, even with his heat driven mind, Louis was able to recognise that he’d only just met the man and he didn’t want to have sex with him.

“No, no,” Niall was quick to reassure, holding his hands out to prove he wasn’t a threat. “I’m not going to have sex with you Louis,” (Yet, Niall added silently). “I promise. I would never take advantage of you like that, baby. All I want to do is take care of you until your heat passes. Is that alright?”

Louis head fell in his hands as he sobbed more. He was in so much pain, and it wasn’t until he laid eyes on Niall that the pain mixed with pleasure. He needed to get himself off, but refused to do so in front of the Alpha.

“How about a bath?” Niall suggested. “A nice warm bath, with plenty of bubbles?”

Louis was so confused; there was so much going on, he didn’t have much control over his body, his emotions and there was a stranger that he was attracted to, who seemed to be the answer to everything. He looked over his fingers, his eyes big, wide and wet. He nodded slowly.

“Okay then,” Niall smiled kindly, holding his hands out for Louis to take. “Can you walk? Would you like me to carry you?”

Louis didn’t have to think twice. He was in so much pain that walking was completely out of the question – it was a wonder he could sit. So, in response, he held his hands up and out as if he was a toddler asking to be picked up.

Niall picked him up, as easily and as quickly as if he _was_ a toddler and the way he carried him, with Louis tucked into his chest, with his head under his chin and his large hands on Louis’ bum, made Louis feel like a toddler. Louis didn’t care anymore that his cock was straining his boxers and was rubbing against Niall’s chest with each step the Alpha took. Louis did however, squeak and latch his arms around Niall’s neck when he felt something warm trickle out of his hole and create a wet patch on the black fabric that was his underwear.

“Alright, alright. You’re okay Louis, sweetheart,” Niall cooed, smelling the trickling slick that Louis was beginning to produce. “It’s just slick – it’s not going to hurt you. It’s there to help you take a knot. It’s alright,” Niall didn’t explain, nor did Louis want an explanation, of what a knot was.

Niall had been glad to get a tour of the Tomlinson household yesterday, by none other than Louis of course. Had he had not been shown where everything he was, he wouldn’t have known where the bathroom was – and asking Louis at the moment seemed out of the question, especially with the way he was whimpering slightly. Niall could sense his distress at all the new feelings and bodily functions he was experiencing. He could understand that this was scary to have thrust upon you, when you had no idea of the world that it came with.

The bathroom was not huge, nor was it small. It wasn’t posh or extravagant. It was just a family sized, white sterile room with a bath and overhead shower, a toilet and sink. Niall continued to shush Louis as he closed the door and lowered the toilet lid.

Louis jumped away from the cool touch of the white plastic when Niall sat him down. But he quickly got over it when Niall’s hands left his. The tears were back, even though Niall was not even two feet away from him, turning the taps of the bath on.

“Hey, it’s alright Louis,” Niall called over the running water. He looked over his shoulder to smile at the Omega. “I’m right here; not going anywhere,” He was quick to move back over to the boy. “See?”

“I…” Louis chocked on his tears. He wasn’t even sure what he was going to say; the next thing he knew he was falling face first into Niall’s chest, crying on the Alpha’s shoulder. Niall ran his hand down Louis’ back soothingly, shushing him slightly.

Niall realised that it was too easy to judge, but he was sure that Louis was a clingy, emotional Omega during his heat – if the last 15 minutes were anything to go by.

Louis’ mind was fuzzy, and almost completely subdued to the heat; and all he really understood was that Niall was warm, kind and safe. Niall smelt sweet, he was just what Louis needed, and Louis knew that Niall was going to look after him – despite having known the Alpha less than 24 hours.

Niall sung under his breath, not moving too far from the Omega (unable to with the hold Louis had on his left hand). He used his free hand to drizzle some bubble bath into the slowly rising water and mixed it in, creating the white, soft, frothy, fluffy bubbles. The taps weren’t switched off until the water filled the bath 3 quarters of the way.

“Alright sweetheart – you ready to get into the water? It’s nice and warm – should sooth the aching in your bones.”

Niall turned back around, unsurprised to see Louis with his hand buried down the front of his boxers. When he processed that Niall’s undivided attention was completely on him again, he squealed and retracted his hand so fast it was as if he’d been burnt.

“It’s okay Louis,” Niall crouched down in front of the toilet. He was now at the height of Louis’ chest, but he looked up at the Omega’s face with a kind smile. He placed his large hands on Louis’ small knees. “You need to get yourself off to get through your heat – it’s dangerous not to Louis. Don’t be embarrassed – it’s okay, it’s natural to do so,” He did not go on to explain that one day he’d be helping Louis through his heat, in more ways than just running him a bath. “Give into your need’s baby.”

Niall knew that it was easier said than done, but he didn’t push Louis any further. He too was rock hard in his pj bottoms, and he was more aroused than he’d ever been; he was struggling to keep himself under control, and the only thing that was helping, was the skin-on-skin contact he was sharing with the Omega before him. He could have easily placed his palm over Louis’ crotch and expertly brought him over the edge, but he knew he would scar the relationship that he needed to build with Louis.

“Do you wanna get into the bath now?”

“Yeah,” Louis whispered out, trying to push himself up. He froze, a small cry falling from his mouth at the pain that coursed through his body; he didn’t know what was worse – the pain or the embarrassment that came with the pleasure.

“Alright; shall I help you?” Niall suggest carefully, not wanting to drive a wedge between him and Louis. Louis debated it for a second, unsure if he wanted to be stood (well sat) completely naked in front of the Niall; he didn’t really want to remove his underwear because he was scared of what he’d find trickling from his asshole and his aching hard dick would be able to spring free – did he want Niall to witness all that?

“Hey,” Niall’s dominating voice brought Louis back to the surface and out of his worried thoughts. “It’s okay Louis. I promise you that nothing will happen – I won’t touch you, or let anyone else touch you; okay? I’ll just help you take your boxers off and will help you straight into the bath. Will that be okay?”

Again, Louis took a moment to think about it. He was all over the place, unable to think straight, and Niall was so close that his scent was distracting; but his tone was welcoming, strong, dominating and safe – Louis knew that he could not be protected and looked after than right in that moment; but that’s about all he knew. The only thought in his mind that was making perfect sense was _‘Niall safe… Niall warm… Niall good…’_ Louis nodded once, looking up wide eyed at the Alpha.

Niall smiled warmly and held his hands in the air, to show that he proved no harm, moving towards Louis’ waist. He hocked his fingers gently and slowly under the waistband on the black fabric and shimmied them past his hips and helped them glide down the Omega’s pale legs. They were rather wet with slick, but Niall just threw them into the corner of the room and moved forward to scoop Louis up, trying his hardest to not take note of his nakedness.

He slipped Louis into the bath, the bubbles doing well to cover everything below Louis’ shoulders and the heat of the water clearly relaxed the Omega.

“There,” Niall smiled as he pulled his arms out of the water, drying them on one of the many towels on the rack. “That better lovely?”

“Yeah,” Louis nodded, eyes closed and shoulders relaxed, a sated smile on his face.

The two were silent, Louis sitting in the water, and Niall knelt at the edge of the bath, massaging shampoo and conditioner into the caramel, fluffy hair. He used his right hand to shield Louis eyes and used the plastic cup that was on the side of the bath to rinse the soap out. Then he began lathering up some shower gel that looked like it could belong to Louis and used it to massage Louis’ neck and shoulders.

Both Louis and Niall were oblivious to the sounds of the house waking up, both too engrossed in the expert-like massage that Niall was giving Louis. The massage he was giving seemed to have calmed Niall’s raving, pacing, wolf and he had retreated into the back of Niall’s mind. It was this reason he didn’t scent or hear the person approaching the bathroom.

The door slammed open, clanging loudly against the wall.

Niall snapped round, taking a protective stance in front of Louis, growling deeply. The sudden intrusion had Niall’s wolf taking over the blonde’s body, ready to turn at the click of a finger.

In the doorway was a young human girl, who was frozen with fear.

Louis was whimpering at the sound of Niall’s growls, which were clearly threats at the intruder. For some reason, he found himself tilting his head to the side and baring his neck.

“Felicite!” A male voice cried worriedly. The man was human too, and Niall’s wolf sense were easily able to detect the scent of an Alpha on him – the man was mated. His hands wrapped round Felicite and pushed her off to the side, and out of Niall’s sight quickly. He didn’t step past the threshold of the bathroom, but leant inside to reach for the door handle; as he pulled the door towards him to shut it, he tried to see around Niall at the Omega sitting in the bath, but the loud, warning growl that was laced with his Alpha command had the Omega banging the door shut. Then his voice was loud as he addressed others that Niall could now smell. “THIS DOOR STAYS SHUT UNTIL ME OR YOUR MOTHER STATES OTHERWISE!”

There was scurrying behind the door, and when all the scents and sounds of the people had faded, Niall swerved back round, hands on either side of Louis’ face making sure that he was okay. Apart from being clearly scared shitless, he was fine.

Niall blinked and the black eyes of his wolf vanished and returned to their baby blue ones.

“What… what…?” Louis hands were on Niall’s arms.

“I’m sorry,” Niall apologised softly. “I didn’t mean to lose control like that.”

“What was that?” Louis whimpered slightly.

“I… your sister spooked me,” Niall admitted sheepishly. He wasn’t about to tell Louis that he’d felt threatened by Felicite, nor was he going to break the news of the werewolf world to him when he was in the middle of his heat. “I don’t know – it scared me and I felt I needed to protect you. I’m sorry,” Niall’s lips kissed Louis’ forehead.

Louis relaxed again at the soft touch and let Niall lift him out of the bath and bundle him up in a towel. The plug was pulled out and the water began draining out of the bath as Niall carried Louis back to his room.

Louis was led down on the bed, towel still wrapped tightly round him. The bath had made him rather sleepy and he was barely able to keep his eyes open as Niall towelled him dry. By the time Niall was slipping another, clean pair of boxers over Louis crotch, Louis’ eyes had slipped shut and his breathing evened out.

Niall moved him so that he was lying with his head on the pillow and pulled the cover over him, tucking him in. He ran his hand through Louis hair and kissed his forehead again, before sitting himself down on the floor and slipping his hand into his pj bottoms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm trying to work out (not necessarily for this story though) whether to have a side of Steeran (Ed Sheeran x Harry Styles) or Gryles (Nick Grimshaw x Harry Styles) or even (THANKS FOR THE SUGGESTION ANONYMOUSE) Jarry (Josh Cuthbert X Harry Styles)  
> So, let me know which pairing you prefer - Steeran V Gryles V Jarry!!
> 
> Feedback is appreciated!!  
> xxRiverMagicxx


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Louis' heat progresses and Niall takes good care of him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 5!! Nearly 6000 words long!! Hope you like it!!

** Chapter 5 **

Louis woke to find himself pressed warmly into someone’s chest. He didn’t have to even open his eyes to know that it was Niall who was spooning him from behind. Had he been able to think straight, he would have jumped out of bed and started swearing profusely while promising to get a restraining order. But because his mind was being run by the heat – he found himself grinding his arse against Niall’s crotch area. Feeling the Alpha growing hard only proved to frustrate Louis further that he had been moments before.

He was not immune to the large wet patch that had spread round the back of his boxers and made his ass cheeks uncomfortable; nor was he oblivious to his own raging hard-on that was aching so hard. The front of his boxers were also wet and soggy and Louis barely registered the fact that he must have ejaculated in his sleep, before he was pushing the boxers down slightly to rest under the curve of his bum.

He sloppily took his aching cock in his hand and pressed himself back against Niall’s crotch area again. Now that his arse was bare, he could feel the cotton of Niall’s PJ trousers and let out a disappointed groan. This however didn’t stop him from eagerly pumping his cock, wanting a release he so desperately needed.

What Louis didn’t know, was that Niall was awake. Niall knew how embarrassed Louis was about being caught masturbating earlier in the bath – but he didn’t understand that this was something he needed to do in order to see the end of his heat. So, Niall allowed Louis the right to feeling like he had some privacy while he got himself off.

Niall had seen to his own needs earlier, after putting Louis to bed. He’d grabbed a shower, knowing that Jay wouldn’t mind (after all he was the pack Alpha), gone commando considering he’d ruined his only pair of underwear and he had ventured downstairs to get a drink for himself and a glass of water for Louis when he woke. He also apologised to the whole family for his outburst in the bathroom earlier. Mark had not been too pleased to see him and was keeping all of his children, bar Louis (and that was only because Niall had him safely tucked asleep in bed), far away from him;

Jay had told her mate that he was being ridiculous – Niall had only been protecting Louis from the unexpected intrusion; she knew that Niall was not going to hurt any of the family – at least she understood why he’d nearly lost his head this morning. Mark still wasn’t letting any of his children in the same room as Niall, and after apologising again and promising to make it up to him somehow, Niall returned to Louis’ room had snuggled under the covers next to his hot body.

Niall had contacted Liam through the pack link, explaining to him what had happened and the reason that he wasn’t at the pack house. Niall allowed Liam to take over the running of the pack for the duration of Louis’ heat and Liam had agreed to bring round some clean clothes for Niall to change into. He’d be round later.

Louis’ jagged moans of both pleasure and frustration reached Niall’s ears and it took every bit of will in Niall’s body _not_ to reach out and help him. Louis could beg all he liked; he could beg for Niall’s palm, fingers, mouth, dick, knot but Niall would not cave, no matter how much he wanted to. He had to remember that it was the heat talking; Louis couldn’t consent to this properly… even though the two were mates. He knew that had Louis been able to think and see clearly, he wouldn’t even let Niall run a hand through his hair.

Some Alpha’s believed that if you couldn’t give an Omega sexual help during their heat, they you couldn’t help them at all. Niall knew that was completely wrong; and while he refused to commit sexual actions, he was going to help Louis through it just by being there for him. It had been proven that Omega’s benefited from simply having their Alpha’s, their mates close during their heat – and Niall was going to be nothing but close. He was still going to look after all things for Louis, spoil him rotten and make sure he knew how much he was cared for – both during his heat and out of it.

Listening to Louis get himself off turned Niall on so much that he could have creamed his pj trousers just listening. It had taken Louis two minutes to reach orgasm, and he groaned under his breath in disgust as he found himself sticky with cum. He grumbled to himself about something or other than Niall couldn’t understand and moved carefully (not wanting his movements to ‘wake’ Niall) as he removed his sodden underwear from his legs and used it to wipe himself down. Once he decided he was relatively clean, he limply threw the black material from the bed. They landed on the floor with a dull ‘thump’.

Niall still hadn’t moved and was having great difficulty in keeping his breathing even, to keep up his ‘sleeping’ image. Louis was moving again and Niall snapped his eyes shut when he worked out that Louis was turning round to face him.

Louis hummed under his breath and tucked himself into Niall’s warm, inviting chest. He buried himself in the grey, gorgeous smelling Henley that Niall was wearing as if he was a hamster rummaging through its bedding.

Niall chose this as his moment to ‘wake up’. His arms moved more securely around Louis and pulled him closer to his body, being careful to not place his hands on the soft milky mounds that were Louis’ lush arse.

“You feeling better after some sleep?” Niall asked, his voice heavy with sleep and lust. He pressed his lips to Louis’ sweaty forehead. Louis said no word in reply, choosing only to whimper. It took Niall only a moment to figure out his groan of discomfort was down to the hardening length pressed up against his thigh.

“Hey, hey; come on baby,” Niall shushed, hands pulling softly on Louis’ hair. “It’s okay lovely,” He pressed a soft kiss to his forehead. “Don’t be embarrassed. It’s natural – remember?”

“Why won’t it go down?” Louis complained into Niall’s shoulder. “It hurts.”

“I know baby, I know,” More kisses were rained down on Louis’ head and fingertips danced up the bare skin of Louis’ arm. “And it’s only feels good when you’re touching, doesn’t it hunny.”

Louis groaned again.

The two were silent for a moment.

Louis’ thoughts were all over the place – the heat having reached its peak. All he knew he needed was Niall’s hands on him. Louis’ hands were shaky as he reached for Niall’s hand.

“Okay?” Niall asked softly, allowing Louis to move his hand. “Whoa, whoa; what are you doing?”

Louis didn’t reply, only moving Niall’s hand further down their bodies until the Alpha’s hand was resting on top of Louis’ shaft.

“Louis, no,” Niall whispered. Louis kept his grip on Niall’s wrist, Niall was unable to remove his hand.

“Please,” Louis gasped. “Please. You – I need you to…”

“Louis – that’s your heat talking,” Niall whispered. Sure, the feeling of Louis in his hold was amazing – one he’d only dreamt about for years, and it was so much better than his dreams had believed.

“Please.”

“Louis I… I can’t.”

“Please Niall,” Louis asked, his mouth finding Niall’s neck.

“Louis,” Niall gasped out, pulling his hand out of the touch and Louis hold. “You’re not thinking straight baby.”

“Niall,” Louis whispered, thrusting his hips into Niall’s crotch area. It caused Niall to let out a manly squeal as the pleasure ran through his body unexpectedly. “I need you.”

“Fuck sake Louis,” Niall groaned, tilting his head back. Louis started mouthing at Niall’s exposed neck. “You’re such a fucking tease!”

“Alpha,” Louis mumbled out through his mouthing and kissing of Niall’s neck.

It was that word that had the black of Niall’s wolf swarming into his eyes.

“I shouldn’t,” Niall growled out. “I shouldn’t, I shouldn’t.” He was trying to get his wolf back under control before he completely lost control and went all the way with the Omega in his arms.

“Just touch me,” Louis whispered encouragingly. Niall groaned lustfully. He was glad that even though his wolf was at the surface, he wasn’t taking advantage of the Omega.

“Louis; No,” Niall couldn’t stop the Alpha command. It was the first time he’d lost control of it in 5 years. He normally had a good rein on it, but it seemed that when he had a needy mate in heat, he lost all control.

The Alpha command washed over Louis and Louis, who was unable to disobey, halted his forwardness and let his face fall back into Niall’s chest. He was crying softly – but Niall didn’t believe that it was over the fact that he had been alpha-commanded; it was because Niall refused to get him off.

Niall’s arms tightened around Louis again, giving the boy the safety and support that he needed.

“I’m sorry Louis,” He whispered to the sobbing boy. His eyes returned to their baby blue colour. “You’ll thank me later.”

____

When Liam arrived at about 2pm with a duffle bag full of Niall’s clothes, Louis was dressed in Niall’s grey Henley. Niall had made Louis slip another pair of boxers over his arse and allowed the boy to slit up against the headboard, completely swallowed by the grey top. Louis had his knees tucked tightly under his chin and the long sleeves of the shirt had been pulled up over his hands and were held together over his knees, hiding his face when he felt he needed to. He was hard _again_.

Louis had palmed himself, stroked himself, pumped himself and rutted himself against pillows (he had originally tried to rut against Niall, but the Alpha was having none of that, no matter what message his cock was giving off). He was no longer embarrassed to complete these acts in front of the blonde, as the pain, heat and pleasure proved to be too much. Yet no matter how many times he got himself off, it didn’t stop the heat, the burning. He’d even tried to finger himself, after Niall had blatantly told him no. He had orgasmed so many times that it was starting to feel like a chore.

And this was only day one. Niall kept reminding him that it would last a week yet.

Liam was the only one that Niall would allow to be in the same room as Louis while he was in heat – he wouldn’t even let his mother, father or sisters in to see him. Liam had the decency to not even glance over at the Omega on the bed as he handed over Niall his duffle bag.

“Clothes to last you a lifetime.”

“Great, thanks mate,” Niall took the bag and placed it at the foot of the bed.

“There was a bit of a falling out this morning between Miller and Goodman,” Liam went on to explain.

“Really?” Niall sighed, rolling his eyes. There was no surprise there; Miller and Goodman were complete opposites and were always at each other’s throats, especially after they had both presented as big-headed Alpha’s.

“Yeah – but this was serious fighting. A full blown argument commenced during breakfast – the busiest hour! And what were they arguing about? A girl.”

“Oh, well… that makes more sense,” Niall mused. He still wasn’t pleased that the two had argued in front of everyone, but wolves were very possessive – it made more sense that they were arguing about a girl.

“She’s not even an Omega,” Liam spoke in a tone that suggested Niall should have known this.

“Oh…”

“Yeah – and then Josh stepped in.”

Josh was Niall’s Gamma (third-in-command). He was a good friend, but not as close to Niall as Liam was. He was older than the two as well, by two years.

“Oh yeah? And did they stop?”

Liam scoffed.

“No. If anything they got worse. And then fists were thrown.”

“I’m going to kill them.”

“Get in line,” Liam continued. “It was the busiest breakfast hour, and they were having a fist fight. I stepped in then alongside Josh. Told them that they stopped their argument and part ways; needless to say, they did not like that at all. I had to physically get between them and push them apart.”

“Fucking twats,” Niall grumbled under his breath. He was going to be having serious words with the two when Louis was out of his heat.

“Yeah – but that’s not the worst part. Goodman challenged Miller.”

“I am going to slaughter them both,” Niall promised, standing from the bed. He began pacing to calm himself. He didn’t need to be all worked up when he was around a very delicate Louis. “I swear I’ve told them not to even think of the other! I am having words and I will be putting precautions into place.”

“They took it outside,” Liam went on to continue his story.

“There’s more?!” Niall cried, rounding on Liam.

“Isn’t there always when Goodman and Miller are involved?”

“Go on,” Niall waved his hand, continuing his pacing. He was acting formal, but not out of want to do so. When talking about pack business and when something like this happened, he put his pack-running head on.

“They took it outside, and no matter how much I ordered them not to do it all – they both turned and went fighting all teeth and claws into the forest. They haven’t been seen since.”

Niall growled, pure Alpha.

Louis whimpered from over on the bed. The scent and sight of his Alpha in distress was putting him on edge. Niall’s Alpha felt guilty and he retreated back slightly, allowing Niall to rush forward and scoop the tiny Omega into his arms. He shushed Louis a bit as he rocked him back and forth slightly.

“I want a search for them,” Niall grumbled quietly in Liam’s direction. “I want trackers tracking their scent and then I want them doing as much pack service as possible until I get back and deal with them accordingly. They are not to be in the same room as one another, nor are they allowed to see, speak or hear about the other.”

“Yes Sir,” Liam nodded. The Sir was more of an inside joke, as this was how Liam was actually supposed to address Niall – but the two friends had agreed against it.

“And for god’s sake – find out who this girl is!”

“Will do.”

“Anything else?” Niall asked.

“Yeah. Uh – you’ve got the monthly pack meeting on Thursday.”

“Reschedule,” Niall didn’t even have to stop and think about this. “Louis’ my top priority at the moment.”

“I figured as much – just didn’t want to go ahead and change plans without asking.”

“Reschedule anything that’s on my timetable for the next week,” Niall ordered lightly.

“Got it,” Liam nodded before moving towards the end of the bed. “One more thing.”

He reached down and picked up the duffle bag that Niall had placed on the floor. He placed it on the mattress at the end of the bed and unzipped the top. Liam cast his eyes over Louis for the first time since he’d arrived in the room – and only to make sure that he wasn’t looking just yet. He was safely straddling Niall’s waist, head buried into the Alpha’s chest. He quickly adverted his eyes, not wanting Niall to assume he was eyeing his mate up.

He reached into the duffle bag and pulled out a purple dildo. He raised his eyebrows and nodded his head towards Louis.

“For when he’s desperate enough,” Liam offered. He knew that Niall had no plans to use Louis’ heat as a chance to get in his pants, even though he desperately wanted to. He understood that this must be frustrating for both Alpha and Omega and knew that, again, both would feel better if Louis’ needs were being seen to appropriately. And filling his hole was one of those requirements.

“Thanks mate,” Niall smiled softly. “You’re the best.”

____

Liam left not too long after that and Niall suggested that the two go and shower, after all they were both hot and sweaty again. But Louis had no intensions of going anywhere; he wasn’t even going to rise from Niall’s lap, not with the way the Alpha’s large, hard cock was poking between his cheeks. Niall had accused him of being a tease and only removed Louis from his lap when the boy started grinding down against him. If he let Louis keep that up, he wasn’t too sure he would be able to hold back.

The day passed relatively slowly, Louis had removed and refused to wear his underwear and got himself off plenty of times in a variety of ways. He must have been tipped over the edge now a total of 20-odd times, and yet he was surprised he had not dried out yet. His arse was sopping wet, and begging to be filled. Louis had stuffed his fingers as deep as he could a couple of times, but it just didn’t feel right – he needed Niall’s fingers but the Alpha refused to indulge him.

Niall had popped out for a bathroom break at one point. Upon his return, he found Louis positioned in the middle of the bed, with his head and shoulders resting on the mattress and his arse in the air. He was in this certain position to clearly allow himself better access to his hole. He was sopping wet, and the slick was shiny as it trickled down his thigh.

Louis had not shown any embarrassment to Niall walking in on him like this, and if anything the sight of the blonde Alpha only fuelled his actions as he moved his free hand around to grab at his cock. Niall had decided that now was the right moment to introduce Louis to the purple friend that Liam had brought around earlier. Louis hadn’t said anything as Niall offered it him, had only snatched it from his hands and shoved the rather large dildo (after all it took the shape of an Alpha werewolf’s cock) up his arse in one swift motion. Niall would have been surprised and shocked had he had not known that Louis had spent a good hour and a half opening himself up.

Jay had brought up tea for the two, knocking on the bedroom door and waiting for Niall to open the door. She hadn’t stepped into the room, had only come to deposit a large plate of sandwiches (she knew that Louis wouldn’t be up to eating anything hot) and had left as quickly as she had come. Niall had set the plate on the desk in the corner of the room and had turned to Louis was had barely taken the dildo from his arse since it had ben first shoved up there. They had munched on the sandwiches through the evening, Niall making Louis eat one each time he was able to.

It was only 7pm when Louis collapsed against the bed, almost asleep. Niall had decided that right there and then was the perfect time for a shower. He had gone to find clean linin, leaving Louis shut up in the room, munching on another cucumber sandwich and sipping a glass of water. He’d returned with the clean sheets and then had dragged Louis from the room, taking clean boxers with him.

The shower hadn’t been very long, mainly because Louis couldn’t stand up on his own. He had leant against Niall the entire time the water flowed over them both, and he allowed Niall to wash his hair and body again. Louis had once again tried to persuade Niall into committing a sexual act, simply asking for a hand job – but once again, Niall shut him down.

Niall had dried every part of Louis’ body for him – secretly relishing in the small whimpers of desire when he moved the towel around his pelvic area. Then he’d dried himself and dressed them both in clean boxers before carrying the sleepy Omega back across the hall to his room. He had sat Louis down in the window seat, allowing him to have the window open a smudge, so that he could get some fresh air; Niall worked on changing the bed sheets. The dirty ones were thrown into Louis’ small dirty laundry basket behind the door, and Niall decided he’d take them downstairs tomorrow morning.

Then the window was shut, Louis was gobbled into his arms and the two settled down for the night. Niall had originally laid Louis down beside him, but Louis had wanted to be close to Niall apparently. So close, in fact, that their hands were interlinked and Louis was lying atop of Niall. Their sweaty chests were pushed together, their legs tangled and Louis’ head rested in the crook of Niall’s neck. Once in this position, it took Louis 5 minutes to get to sleep, despite his once again hard cock and leaking ass. Niall had fallen asleep only minutes after Louis, being soothed by the deep breathing of the boy.

Day two and three was much the same as the first, although Louis didn’t spend as much time with the dildo up his arse of his hand around his cock. He stayed close to Niall, again trying to persuade the Alpha.

By day four, the heat had died down a bit, and Louis was finally able to stand up to his full height on his own. Louis was also able to get some respite from the heat and pain; he had an hour of freedom between each ‘heatwave’ where he wouldn’t feel any pain (beside from the warmth of the heat) or desire to see to himself. With this in mind, Niall allowed Louis to venture downstairs, with Niall closely at his side, to spend breakfast with his family. That had been an experience. Jay had welcomed them both downstairs, as if the two had not spent the last four days locked up in a bedroom together. Mark on the other hand had wanted to wrap his arms around Louis and hug him tight. And while Niall had known that there was no way this man was going to cause Louis any harm, he didn’t want his mate smelling of another while he was in his heat – just the thought of it put Niall on edge. Jay had to order him to stay sat down, and the girls had all been told (Niall noticed Jay whispering to each of her children as she handed out toast) not to stare at Louis and Niall. Louis, despite being able to sit by himself in the chair next to Niall, had promptly plonked himself down in Niall’s lap and allowed the blonde to feed him toast. Louis was still heavily under the influence of his heat and he had no worries about doing it now – but everyone knew that the blue eyed Omega was going to be so embarrassed when he resurfaced.

Day five the heat got worse again, but that was only to be expected; it was quite normal to happen. However, even though the heat was worse again, it was not as bad as the first day had been. Louis just spent more time with the dildo up his arse than he expected.

Day 6, Louis was starting to remerge from the heat, and he would go all red whenever he experienced another heatwave. It didn’t stop him from seeing to it as best as possible (at least now he was understanding that the heat wouldn’t go down until you saw to it), but he was more secretive about it again – just like the first few hours of the first day.

Day 7 saw Louis almost to the end of his heat. Niall allowed Louis to spend two hours downstairs, playing with Doris and Ernest – but he’d then stolen him and locked him back upstairs when another heatwave hit. Louis only had to push himself to orgasm twice on day 7 and the two spent most of the day cuddled up together, eating ice-cream and watching action-comedies on the TV in Louis’ bedroom.

When Louis woke on day 8, he felt completely different. There was only a faint fuzz on the edge of his mind, but he knew that he was practically free from the heat. He could tell that just from the way he was feeling when he opened his eyes – that and the fact that he hadn’t woken up to a hard on.

Louis was rather embarrassed about the whole ‘heat’ ordeal, now that he could think clearly. He had never experienced anything like it and he hoped he never would again. His actions hadn’t seemed like his own – he had felt like a robot that was being controlled, a puppet easily bent to see to his own needs. He knew that had he have been able to think straight, see the situation as it actually was he would have just rode the pain out and not allowed Niall to see him as vulnerable as he had, with his hand down his pants the entire time; he would never have even allowed Niall anywhere near him, let along _beg_ him to pleasure him.

Louis shuddered at the glassed over, foggy memories of everything that had happened during the week. He wanted to forget them forever, but he also wanted to know why his body had acted the way it had – why had he experience burning and pain until he was pleasuring himself? Why did he feel the need to be filled? Why did he want _Niall_ , a complete and utter stranger (well, Louis pondered, could he still be classed as a stranger now?) to be the one to fill him? Why had his body wanted to always be close to Niall? Why was Niall so special? What exactly had he experienced? Was it normal? Life threatening? Was it going to flare up again? Why had he barely seen his parents, his siblings? Why hadn’t Niall let him touch them? Why was he so content with the blonde haired stranger? Louis had a lot of questions.

It was as these questions were rushing through his mind when he seemed to actually process that Niall was nowhere to be seen. His eyes danced around the room, hoping to spot the blonde Alpha. He didn’t. He also didn’t like the feelings of abandonment that engulfed him when he realised that he was well and truly alone. Before he knew it, he was silently crying, wishing that Niall was holding him in his arms – maybe kissing him, and touching him; stretching him open with long fingers and burying himself deep inside of him… _wait, what?_ Louis shook his head as he brought the cover further over himself – he shouldn’t think about Niall like that, especially after the week he had just experienced.

2 minutes later, Niall decided to make an appearance. He walked through the bedroom door with a tray in his hands.

“Hiya,” The Alpha smiled, using his hip to shut the door. He walked further into the room and placed the tray on Louis’ bedside table. Louis pushed himself up into a sitting position, his back up against the headboard.

“Breakfast in bed?” Louis asked timidly, taking note of what was on the tray. Boiled egg and soldiers (Yum! Louis’ favourite) and a small plate of grapes an pineapple. A tall glass of orange juice was also on the tray and a small vase of pink and white flowers complimented the tray nicely.

“Though it would be nice,” Niall explained, sitting on the edge of the bed, quite closely to Louis. Louis didn’t realise his subconscious relishing in the closeness.

“It’s,” Louis’ eyes flicked to his alarm clock beside the tray. “It’s 11:30; shit – is it really?”

“Yeah,” Niall chuckled. “You’ve been sleeping for a while now baby.”

Louis basked in the pet name, his cheeks blushing. He had no idea what Niall was doing to him and his body, but he craved the guy.

“So, you ready for breakfast?”

“Will you always bring me breakfast in bed?” Louis asked quietly, accepting the tray that Niall held out to him. He set it on his lap and popped a grape into his mouth.

“Whenever you want,” Niall smiled, moving around the bed and sitting against the headboard, next to Louis. Louis curled up against Niall’s side as he munched his way through his breakfast.

____

Even though Niall had promised Louis that his heat was over, he still stuck around for the rest of the day. Louis was surprised with himself, when he realised how much he enjoyed being in Niall’s company. The two had gone out into the back garden and had enjoyed a bit of sunshine with the rest of the Tomlinson family; and this time, Louis had been allowed to hug everyone.

It had been a nice, chilled day. Everyone had enjoyed themselves, but whenever Louis had tried to breech any questions to Niall, his mother or his father, each one of them had subtly changed the subject or had blatantly not answered him.

Niall had stayed for tea, and had watched Louis help but Doris and Ernest to bed with a fond smile on his face before he programmed his phone number into Louis’ mobile and told him to text or call anytime day, or night. He’d kissed Louis forehead in goodbye, shook his parents hand’s and then had left – left as if he had just popped round to spend the evening.

Louis had once again tried to get some answers out of his parents, but he was seriously getting nowhere and it was starting to frustrate him. In the end, he bid everyone goodnight and had gone up to bed. It was only 7:30.

The first thing he’d done was shower. Once he was dried and dressed, he realised that Niall’s scent had left him, and for some reason that made him feel down heartened… and a little bit worried. He hadn’t taken any note of how his scent had improved since he’d experienced this ‘heat’.

He walked into his room and was engulfed with the scent of Niall. He greatly relaxed upon smelling the guy and squealed quietly when he noticed one of his jumpers folded up at the end of his bed. Louis wasted no time, quickly dressing himself in the too-large jumper.

The next thing he’d done was grab his laptop. He had to plug it in and wait for it to charge up a bit, as the old thing had run out battery where he hadn’t used it. He had reaccustomed himself with all his social media accounts and promised a few worried friends that he hadn’t _‘died and dropped off the face of the earth!’_ Next he’d loaded up google and typed in one word;

_‘Heat’_

If the people he knew and trusted weren’t giving him answers, he was going to find them himself.

However, the one word was clearly not going to be enough. Google provided him with 941,000,000 results. He scrolled down the first page, hoping to find something. Heat magazine’s official website; an IMDb page about a 1995 film called Heat; A Wikipedia page about the physics of heat; another Wikipedia page about the 1995 Heat film and another for Heat magazine; news that was tagged ‘heat’; Facebook pages, Amazon pages; websites about climate change and websites about home heating.

He frowned. He was definitely not looking for any of that. So he decided to complete another search;

_‘What is heat?’_

934,000,000 results. Again, he scrolled through the first page of results, frowning the entire time. It was all about the science and physics behind heat.

Another search, of _‘I’ve suffered with heat’_. He was given 13,900,000 results. This time it looked more promising, but upon clicking on a couple of links it proved to all be about prickly heat and heat rash advice.

 _‘Does everyone go through heat?’_ That’s when he got a surprise. It came up with 194,000,000 results and the first page consisted of people questioning about cat and dog’s going into heat. He furrowed his eyebrows, and clicked on one out of curiosity. It explained enough for Louis to know, this was not what he had experience and some relief flooded through him. There was one link – to a Yahoo Answers page. The question the person was asking was a simple one, and it seemed to be exactly what Louis was looking for;

_‘Do Omega’s go into heat just like cats?’_

He clicked on the link and began reading the ‘best answer’.

 _‘I suppose you could say they do. Female Omegas ovulate once every month, and this can be classed as heat._ (Louis knew this and scanned the first paragraph, only stopping when he noticed the word ‘male’). _Of course, male Omegas do not ovulate as such; but they do, like the females, give off pheromones that Alphas, and sometimes Beta’s subconsciously sense. Most people call it ‘ovulating’ for both male and female Omegas although I suppose you could also call it a heat._

 _Omega’s will dress to impress when they are at their most fertile (this is when they are close to ovulating and when they are ovulating). They will, like stated above, let of pheromones and dress more revealing because their body wants to mate._ (Louis was not foreign to the word ‘mate’, after hearing Niall refer to himself as Louis’ ‘mate’ many times during his weeklong stay.)

 _Some animals release powerful scents_ (Louis’ eyes widened, Niall hadn’t been the only one to comment on the scent he had apparently given off) _when ready to mate, while others display skin colour changes_ (Louis thanked high heaven that this hadn’t happened). _But human ovulation is notoriously difficult to detect._

Louis scanned the rest of the answer – but was only greeted with talk about pregnancies.

Opening a new tab, Louis began another search. Something was fishy about what he had read, and he needed to delve deeper into it.

_‘Omega in heat’_

19,000,000 results. Again, it came up with a few funny pages that were not of interest, or not what Louis was looking for. But, he clicked the second page out of luck and came across a Tumblr page, titled nothing more than _‘Omega’s in heat’_. He was a little disturbed by what he found.

It was basically a porn blog, about Omega’s… Omega’s who had been through what he had been through. There was a video, albeit not a very high quality video, that Louis forced himself to watch – a female Omega who was being referred to as ‘kitten’ and was constantly being teased about ‘being in heat’. Louis nearly vomited when the male Alpha made his appearance from behind the camera. He took the woman and sunk right into her.

That was when Louis quickly closed the tab.

That was clearly what he had been through – he had been begging Niall the way she had been begging to the camera. He had been sweaty and frustrated when his own hand and fingers proved to not be enough, just like the woman. He had whimpered and groaned and moaned just like she had. He blinked a few times, rereading the Yahoo answer page. It proved to just confuse him further;

What the hell was going on?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay - so first off, I know some of you (Looking at you Trish XD) wanted some Nouis smut in this - but it worked out better this way. And I mean, Louis is confused as hell as it is, after coming out of his heat - if smut had happened between himself and Niall I think that might have sent him into overdrive!!  
> I do have a lot of plans for this story - and I cannot wait to share them with you all!!  
> Also - the Yahoo Answers page I talk about in the chapter? I based it off of a real answer page (if you'll believe it or not!). So I would like to thank that Answer page. And for future reference (and to clearly state that some of what I wrote in the 'answer' doesn't belong to me) here is the link, in case any of you wanted to check it out.  
> https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081003205549AAwcUlf
> 
> Feedback is appriciated!!  
> xxRiverMagicxx


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Louis gets a call about a job, and Niall's requested to meet with Harry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warm Soul will hopefully be the next update!!  
> Also a very Happy Fathers Day to all Dad's across the globe.

** Chapter 6 **

Breakfast at the Med House was always hectic – although Zayn knew that it had nothing on breakfast at the main Pack House. Breakfast was served between the hours of 6:30AM (for the really early risers) and 9:30AM (for those who rose a little later); but the busiest hour was between 7AM and 8AM, when families brought their children down to eat before taking them to school. Zayn used to hate prime time, and still did but was slowly getting better with it. When he had been at school and college he had tried to get up earlier to eat breakfast. Now Zayn tended to leave it until 8:30 at the earliest before he had his first meal of the day, just so he missed the rush. His adopted family, the Styles’, had very kindly adapted their own breakfast habits so that they could meet his needs, help him and still eat together as a family.

“It’s busier than normal,” Zayn commented as he cautiously sat down at their normal dining table, his eyes darting nervously around the room.

“Zayn?” Des asked softly, gently reaching out and slowly putting a hand on his son’s shoulder.

Zayn, who had turned to look at his father at the sound of his name, still jumped when the hand came into contact with him. Des smiled softly, his heart aching for the Omega who had been through so much during his childhood and was still not over things more than 10 years on; nobody could blame Zayn though, there was no way you could get over that type of treatment, ever.

“There’s not a single person in this room who doesn’t like you. I’m here, your Mum’s here, Harry’s here – we’re not going to let anything happen to you. You’re safe here son.”

Zayn couldn’t stop nibbling on his bottom lip anxiously and pulling on his t-shirt to distract his hands. He didn’t know what to say to the older man who had devoted hours and hour of his time to help him through really tough times in his life, and still continued to do so today. Zayn’s eyes flickered to Anne, who had a sad smile on her face, her hand extended on the table towards him; Zayn quickly took her hand and felt a soft, motherly sense of security wrap round him. With that, he was also able to relax and accept the security of Des’ Alpha touch and quickly turned into his chest for a safe, secure hug.

Desmond wrapped his arms soundly around Zayn, mumbling praise quiet enough that only Zayn could hear.

“Hey,” Harry greeted, not batting an eyelid at his 24 year old brother curled up in his father’s arms. It was a regular sight, and Harry had no problems with it knowing just how much it helped Zayn. He had a large plate of food, piled high with double helpings of everything you would find in a fried breakfast; that was only to be expected though, he was a wolf and wolves had large appetites.

“Morning love,” Anne smiled at her youngest son as she helped herself to the large pot of fresh coffee that Harry brought over with him. She poured herself a generous helping. “What are you going to be doing today?”

“I’ve got training, again,” Harry groaned, stuffing a large chunk of black pudding into his mouth.

“It’s not too late to train to be a Dr, son,” Desmond responded, with an I-told-you-so tone. Harry had decided that he wanted to go into the warrior side of things, instead of taking after the medical profession like his mother and father. It had been a long time since a Styles had taken any other route than medicine, and Des had been a little disappointed when Harry had decided he didn’t want to carry on the family name; but Des hadn’t made a big deal out of it – if Harry wanted to be a warrior, a pack protector then that was fine by him.

“I don’t want to be a Dr,” Harry grumbled, munching on a slice of bacon now. “I just thought I would have completed my training by now.”

“You knew how long it was going to take when you signed up,” Anne pointed out, but she wasn’t mean about it, more like just stating a fact. “And you’re going to be training for the rest of your life, even after you complete your initial training – every Saturday.”

“I don’t mind that,” Harry explained. He felt like he had tried to get his parents to understand his situation a million times. “I just… I thought I’d be doing something by now…”

“Alpha’s saving you for something special,” Zayn mumbled, gently pulling out of Des’ hug. He reluctantly slid back into his own seat, feeling relatively better than he had a couple of moments ago.

“What?” Harry asked.

“He keeps you training, never saying you’re good enough,” Zayn shrugged slightly.

Harry blushed angrily, having only ever told Zayn about the multiple times the pack Alpha had told him to keep training. He had never out rightly told his parents that he had been told that he wasn’t good enough to be a pack protector, ashamed of what the two would say, but it was no secret that they knew he had been told ‘no’. Training to become a pack warrior or pack protector took roughly 1-4 years to complete – an assessment being held at the end of every year; Harry had been told no 4 times… 4 years of training, the 5th year already started, and Harry felt like he was getting nowhere.

“I dunno,” Zayn continued. “It just makes more sense. I know that you’re more than capable than some of our protectors – Alpha Niall knows it too. He’s saving you for something I reckon.”

“What?” Harry asked, lacking the ability to say anything else. Zayn shrugged again, knowing that Harry had understood exactly what he had said. Harry knew very well that Zayn had a good point, but Harry didn’t want to put his hope into something that wasn’t for certain.

It fell silent at the Styles’ table, everyone thinking over what Zayn had said – knowing that it made sense. Anne silently sipped her coffee, Harry continued to eat his fried breakfast and Des and Zayn just sat there quietly unsure what to say.

“Would you like some breakfast Zayn?” Des asked, pushing his chair back, preparing to stand up. Zayn looked towards him.

“Scrambled egg please,” Zayn mumbled quietly. He was normally able to go up and get breakfast for himself, a lot easier than how it used to be. But when he got a little nervous, like he had this morning, someone around the table would always offer to get him whatever he wanted.

Des nodded, turning to his mate.

“Anne?”

“Uh, yes please. I’ll have some scrambled egg too.”

As Desmond walked past, Anne pulled him towards her, and pecked her lips against his. Harry and Zayn furrowed their eyebrows and pulled sour faces, just like they did every time their parents shared PDA. Anne giggled at their reactions as Des walked away with a smirk on his face.

When breakfast was put in front of Zayn and Anne, and Des sat down with his own fried breakfast, the family ate in comfortable silence, only sharing small talk where it was appropriate.

“Oh wow!” Anne gushed suddenly, having finished her scrambled egg. She was half way through a nectarine when she noticed the commotion coming from the entrance. “Oh my, look at those!”

Everyone at the table turned to follow her gaze. There at the door was Millie, a teenage Beta wolf who was still at college and had a part time messenger job. She was carrying a large bouquet of flowers, clearly delivering them to someone within the room.

“Oh, I wonder who they’re for!” Anne continued to squeal. She always got excited when things like this happened, absolutely adoring when couples sent each other gifts and messages. Desmond often did sentimental things for her as well, knowing how much she loved it.

“Calm down love,” Des chuckled. “You’ll find out soon enough.”

Zayn furrowed his eyebrows as he watched Millie. She looked around the large bouquet and turned in a circle so that she could survey the room and find who she was looking for. She landed her glance on the Styles’ table and was quick to start walking towards them.

“Zayn Malik?” Millie asked, she had a smile on her face as she tried to see round the large bouquet.

Anne started cooing, but Des shushed her hurriedly. It had all but fallen silent in the room, every pair of eyes on Zayn, Millie and the flowers. Zayn did not like the attention and wanted it over with, fast.

“Uh… yeah…” Zayn mumbled quietly.

“These are for you,” She explained as she extended the heavy looking flowers towards the table. Zayn helped her move them forward, taking the vase that the flowers rested in and placing them on the table in front of him.

“Uh,” Zayn had gone speechless, often finding that his tongue and mouth didn’t work when he had such attention. He wanted to say thank you, but he couldn’t find the words.

“Thank you Millie,” Anne spoke for him.

Millie, who understood that something horrible had happened to Zayn, but did not know exactly what, smiled kindly.

“You’re welcome Zayn.”

She moved around the table, opened her messenger bag, fumbled around inside it for a moment or two before pulling out the daily letters for Desmond and Anne – after all Desmond was the head Pack Dr and Anne was the head Pack Nurse. But she also had a note for Harry as well, which did not happen every day. Then she moved around the room, dropping off other messages, small parcels and letters for the other pack members in the breakfast room.

Slowly everyone went back to their own devices, leaving Zayn to enjoy the flowers with just himself and his family.

“Oh Zayn, they’re lovely! I wonder who they’re from!” Anne murmured quietly, excited for her son.

They were easily the largest bouquet of flowers that Zayn had ever seen, wrapped in delicate blue paper and placed elegantly in an oval shaped glass vase. The flowers were a beautiful, deep, rich blue – some slightly paler than the others; and between the three different shades of blue roses were pure white roses, a dazzling contrast. They were absolutely stunning.

The Styles’ were paying no attention to their own messages, too interested in Zayn’s present that took up most of the table.

“Oh, is there a card?” Harry asked excitedly, climbing out of his chair with precision and practically dived towards the bouquet.

“Harry! Be careful!” Anne scolded lightly, hands moving out to protect the blue and white swirls.

“Ah-ha!” Harry declared, picking off the small, blue, squared card. He opened it, tongue darting out between his lips as he read with concentration. His eyes went wide, before he read it aloud for the whole table to hear. “ _Zayn. All my love, L._ ”

Zayn reached up and snatched the card from Harry, blushing. He read it for himself as the table fell hushed, awaiting his reaction. He had a good idea that it was from the mysterious _L_ , but upon reading that his suspicions were correct, his cheeks warmed even more.

This was not the first time that he had received a gift from _L_ , out of the blue (for lack of a better word). He had managed to keep his secret admirer a, well, secret from his family – it had been easy to do so, considering the gifts appeared whenever Zayn was home alone. But this was almost as public as it could get, and it was by far the biggest gift he had been sent.

“Who’s _L_?” Des asked curiously, finishing up the last of his breakfast.

Zayn had wanted to keep it a secret, had hoped _L_. wasn’t going to take it this far.

“I don’t know,” Zayn lied quietly, closing the card quickly and stuffing it in his pocket.

He knew exactly who _L_. was, and he wasn’t about to share. He didn’t need every cooing and gushing over him – telling him how lucky he was. It wasn’t every day that the pack Beta tried to court you; yet for Zayn it had been happening for the past month or two now.

“Well, whoever it is – they surely like you Zayn,” Anne smiled, placing her hand on top of Zayn’s jittery one, to try and sooth him.

“Yeah, maybe,” Zayn rushed with a shrug. He was getting nervous again, but a different kind – he was fearing his family finding out. It was an honour when a high ranking pack member sent you gifts and tried to court you – but for Zayn it brought unnecessary, unwanted attention… he didn’t want to make a big deal about the whole situation, and this was what had prompted him to keep silent about the whole thing right from the beginning.

~ TS ~

“They really are lovely Zee,” Harry explained as he helped Zayn carry them up to his room. The two had decided that they would look good on the desk by the windowsill, allowing the light to warm them up and make them almost sparkle.

Zayn had to agree with Harry, now that he could admire them away from the scrutiny of everyone else; they really were beautiful, and they filled Zayn’s room with a lovely flowery scent.

“You really don’t know who they’re from?” Harry asked quietly, sitting beside Zayn on his bed and allowing the Omega to fall into his side.

“Nope,” Zayn mumbled. He searched for a quick subject changer. “What was your message about this morning?”

“Oh, yeah,” Harry exclaimed suddenly, digging in his pocket. “I read it briefly, but was too interested in your flowers and secret admirer!” He unfolded a piece of paper and read aloud; “ _Harry Styles. You are required to meet at the Pack House meeting room, at 11:45AM to meet with Alpha Horan for matters concerning your training. Signed Beta Payne_.”

Harry shrugged his shoulders and handed it over to Zayn for him to read for himself.

“Short but sweet,” Zayn smiled, ignoring the name at the bottom of the note, handing it back to Harry after he inspected it.

“You don’t think he’s going to stop my training or something? Order me to give up and take up medicine like Dad wants me to do, do you?”

“I don’t know Harry,” Zayn sighed, resting his head on Harry’s shoulder. “It could be to do with that thing he’s keeping you for.”

“Ha-ha!” Harry laughed sarcastically. He playfully pushed Zayn with his shoulder. “You and I both know that you’re just saying that to stop me worrying.”

~ TS ~

Louis jolted up at the sound of his phone ringing. He had been enjoying a peaceful sleep, one that had taken a long time to get to. It had been a couple of days since he had said goodbye to Niall, and unlike the Alpha had asked him to do – he had not once called or texted him. But, it had been near damn impossible for Louis to get to sleep since he’d left, even though he was absolutely shattered.

He grabbed the ringing blackberry from his bedside table, winced at the bright light as he tried to see the caller ID illuminating his screen. It was a number, one that was not programmed into his phone. And suddenly Louis was wide awake. This could be it, someone calling about one of the many job interview’s he’d applied for.

Louis had decided that he’d clearly have to travel a little further for work than he’d originally planned. He’d found one roughly 20 miles out of town that was looking for a drama teacher, and one 15 miles the other way. He’d applied for them yesterday, but didn’t think they’d get back to him so soon.

He was quick to answer.

“Hello?” He tried to sound formal, but failed due to his sleep heavy voice.

“Hello, am I speaking with Louis Tomlinson?” A kind sounding woman on the end of the line asked.

“Uh, yeah,” Louis coughed, apologised and then continued. “Yeah, that’s me.”

His eyes glanced quickly to his digital alarm clock; _10:30AM_. He hadn’t realised he’d slept so late, but it wasn’t really surprising considering he hadn’t clocked out until at least 4AM.

“Hello Mr Tomlinson.”

“Please, call me Louis,” Louis corrected her, wanting to come across friendly, yet professional.

“Good morning Louis,” The woman started again. “This is Mrs Lillie Dennis, from Silver Valley Secondary School.”

“Excuse me?” Louis asked, completely and utterly shocked. Silver Valley was his old secondary school, Felicite, Daisy and Phoebe currently attended there, Charlotte had only left last year and it would also be Doris’ and Ernest’s secondary school when they reached that age. But Louis hadn’t applied for a job there, because they had no jobs going – that and he knew they wouldn’t accept him anyway because he was a blood relative to some of their students. So, one question came to mind – why were they phoning him?

“Silver Valley Secondary School?” Mrs Dennis repeated. “I’m the Head Mistress, and I understand that you used to attend this school when Mr Dominic Atkinson was Head Master?”

“Uh, yeah, yeah – I did,” Louis reassured her. “How can I help you?”

“Well Louis, I’d like to offer you a job,” She was blunt and straight to the point.

“Excuse me?” Louis said, again. Now he was beyond shock, he had no idea what was going on.

“You’re a newly qualified student with a drama award and teaching certificate. It is my understanding that this qualifies you to be a drama teacher. We have a job opening and I would like to offer it to yourself.”

“Me?” Louis could not wrap his head around this. “Are you sure?”

“You are everything we’re looking for.”

“And this isn’t a joke?”

“Why would it be a joke?”

Louis laughed quietly, running a hand through his bedhead.

“It’s just, I never applied for a job at Silver Valley – when I checked there were no job openings,” He explained.

“Miss Gillard has decided to move town during the summer, a very last minute decision, I assure you.”

“And what about my sisters? My sisters attend SV, I didn’t think you were allowed to employee blood relatives.”

“We are willing to overlook the matter,” Mrs Dennis explained.

“And, not to be rude, but can I just ask _how_ you managed to get my mobile number?” Louis would like to see her explain that one.

“It was your sister actually, Felicite. She heard about Miss Gillard leaving, naturally the whole school knows, and she was kind enough to volunteer you for the job.”

“Really?” Louis asked, unsure how he should digest that information. His sister was just going about and giving out his personal information – he made a side note to have words with her about that later.

“Really, really,” Mrs Dennis promised. “It’s yours if you want it.”

“Uh,” Louis cleared his throat. “Um… sure, when would you like me to come in for the interview?” He threw the covers back easily and slid off the mattress with speed. He dashed for a pen and any scrap bit of paper to write down the details. But he only got so far before Mrs Dennis’ next words sunk in.

“Oh, I’m quite sure you’ve got the job – no interview needed.”

“What?” Louis asked suspiciously.

“I would like to meet you before you start in September. Forms need to be filled out, now would be a good time to send off for a DBS as well; just the formalities. It would be lovely to meet you.”

“Uh… sure,” Louis was not sure. “When would you like me to come in?”

“Just pop round when you’re free, as soon as possible if you could please. I’ll be happy to meet you any time between 9AM and 3:15PM.”

“Great, thank you,” Louis said his goodbyes before he hung up his phone. He looked at the screen for a moment or two, trying to decide whether or not to actually pay the school a visit and see if it was all true.

~ TS ~

Harry nervously bit at his already blunt fingernails. He was sat on the wooden, gym-style bench against the wall of the meeting room where he had been told to meet with the Alpha. He was a little early – but he wasn’t the only one here. There were 2 others, who had been training for almost as long as Harry had. But it was no secret that Harry had been in training the longest. It had been so long now that Harry had no idea exactly what path he was going down – was he going to be a pack warrior, or a pack protector?

Pack Warriors were that in every sense, they fought for the pack, died for the pack and put the pack before themselves. Protectors were more or less the same, but were more focused on making sure that everyone was away safely; kind of like the sheepdog to the sheep, they made sure that everyone was rounded up and to a safe place, fighting the threat if it ever appeared before doubling pack to help the warriors. Pack protectors also had other roles, such as running the perimeter check and warning the pack and the pack’s Alpha if danger was to ever arise.

The difference between the two wasn’t very much, that’s why both trained together. Monday through to Friday, the trainee warriors and protectors would train together in the overly-large training room, gym and training field. It was there they mainly learnt how to fight, defend themselves, their pack and any others that might be around them; they learnt the knowhow of how to deal with certain situations, knowing when to speak, what to say and how to say it (if negotiating is required).

The trainee’s got Sunday off (as it was tradition; years back everyone had Sunday’s off to attend church), but Saturday was also a training day. But instead of training together, the trainee warriors and the trainee protectors were separated for the day and would, Harry supposed, attend to the specific training that would apply to their own job, but not the other.

You didn’t actually get to choose which training, which role you took on in the pack. You did get to make a choice right at the beginning when you first signed up; had to talk about it in an interview, and then again with your mentor; and most people got what they originally signed up for, but others didn’t – simply because they were better in the other line of work.

Harry had always wanted to be a protector, right from the get-go, but he had never been chosen. He had never attended a ‘specific training day’ on a Saturday, or any say for the matter. This was because he was kept in the group that were not quite ready to have a final, decided specific role; the group didn’t just include newbies though, others that needed a little extra training, maybe some dusting off would also attend some weeks. Harry had grown to hate it; course he had begged to be move up, to be chose to become a protector, or even a warrior, he didn’t care, but each time, he got the same answer – _“You’re just not ready yet Harry. Alpha Horan says you gotta keep training here for now”_. Well ‘Alpha Horan’ was a right dick, and many-a-times, Harry had almost, _almost_ , quit at it to take up medicine instead, just like his father so desperately wanted him to.

But then, maybe that was what this was – maybe Alpha Horan had had enough of keeping Harry, and the other two Beta’s in training; maybe he was going to exclude them from training to become a warrior or protector, because it was taking so long? Harry desperately hoped not, because even though he had thought about quitting he had always stuck with it to prove everyone wrong – no one thought he could do it, he so badly wanted to show them all up, show them that he could be better than what they all thought!

“Do…” Harry was pulled out of his trailing thoughts by the sound of Tristan’s voice, one of the other Beta’s in the room. Tristan was talking to both Harry and their fellow Beta and trainee, Ross. “Do either of you uh… know why were, um, why we’re here?”

“No idea,” Harry mumbled under his breath, his hands rubbing together, in a failed attempt to relieve some of the tension within his body and the room. “I just hope he doesn’t keep us waiting.”

In almost perfect unison, the three Beta’s turned to the closed doorway that was still closed.

“And we’re the only three that were called?” Ross, who was clearly the more confident of the three of them asked.

“I guess so…” Tristan looked at his wrist watch. “Clock is literally just turning 11:30.”

“Shit,” Harry cursed, his leg bobbing. He brushed his long hair out of his face with his pale, clammy hand and wiped at the sweat on his forehead with the neck of his t-shirt. He was, to put it simply, a utterly nervous wreck.

The other boys weren’t holding up much better, Tristan stood up and started pacing, swearing every fourth step and Ross began humming something that sounded like Taylor Swift’s Shake It Off under his breath. Harry didn’t question him, realising that they were both probably thinking exactly the same thing that he was – they were going to be kicked out from training… or, maybe ever worse. Perhaps Alpha Horan had completely and utterly given up on them and was kicking them out of the pack?

The large double doors of the meeting room slowly opened with a clunk and a creak. The stench of an Alpha hit the three lads strongly, but it was not just any knothead Alpha – it was the distinctive sent of a Pack Alpha; or more specifically, the Silver Valley Pack Alpha. On instinct, Harry and Ross rose to their feet and Tristan stopped his pacing and hurried to stand beside his fellow trainee’s; they all stood with their hands behind their backs and their heads bowed ever-so-slightly in a sign of their respect.

And there he was, in the flesh, right before them.

“Gentlemen.”

That was the sign; all three Beta’s relaxed, their hands going lax at their sides and their heads returning to their natural position. But no one dared speak a word, too afraid of why they had been called to meet with the Alpha.

“You can relax,” The Alpha went on to say, a smile gracing his pale skin. “You’re all here for the same reason… and it’s not bad, honest.”

“Alpha, may I… may we,” Harry began, motioning to Tristan and Ross as well. “Ask what we are here for?”

“I want to offer you all some training.”

“Training?” Ross asked, his quizzical eyebrow and confused tone speaking for all of them. They had plenty of training, they just hadn’t been chosen to move up the training ladder yet. “Sorry Sir, you’ve lost me.”

“I thought I might,” Alpha Horan smiled. “Come, let’s sit down.”

He beckoned the three Beta’s towards the meeting table that was at the other end of the room. The table was retractable, and had many parts. It could be made longer, larger if needed – but today it was kept small – big enough to seat 4 of them. Alpha Horan sat down in one of the four seats, Tristan and Ross were quick to take the two opposite him, leaving Harry lucked out and sitting next to the Pack Alpha.

“First lads, let me tell you all that you can drop the ‘Sir’s’ and the ‘Alpha’s’ and let’s not even go near the ‘Horan’ part. Please, call me Niall – if all goes well, and to plan, we will be working very closely together in the very near future and beyond; probably for the rest of all of our lives.”

He wasn’t nasty, or horrible about how he wanted to be addressed at all, if anything it sounded like he was introducing himself to his future lifelong friends… and, Harry assumed, that was basically what he had just introduced himself as.

“And please,” Niall laughed slightly, clearly relaxed (yet somehow still managing a formal outlook). “Relax. I’ve got Liam on refreshment duty – he’s not too happy about that mind you – but we’ve got drinks and biscuits coming,” He laughed again. “I requested beer, but Liam likes to stick to the rules like glue; and we can’t drink on the job – can we lads?”

Niall seemed to be doing all the talking; a tactic that was to try and get the other boys to loosen up a bit.

“Sorry… Niall,” Harry tested the name slowly on his tongue, deciding right there and then that it was weird refereeing to the Pack Alpha as anything but Alpha, Horan or Sir. He didn’t change it though, respecting the Alpha’s wishes. “But… job? We’re still in training – and you said something about offering more training?”

“Okay, okay; you guys want to know why you’re here; fair do’s. I would want to know too – guess I can’t keep you waiting any longer eh? Don’t worry, the suspense is killing me too.”

At that moment, Beta Payne – or Liam, as Niall had referred to him as – sauntered into the room with a tray of what _looked like_ red wine, but was probably blackcurrant squash, and a large plate of every biscuit that was probably in the kitchen. He set it on the table in between them, turned a scowl on Niall and turned his back. Niall chuckled as Liam stalked away and stood against the wall with his arms crossed – he had to oversee the meeting, it was tradition.

“Lighten up,” Niall ordered lightly, picking up a custard cream. “Have a biscuit,” He threw it at Liam who caught it, barely batting an eyelid (Harry, Tristan and Ross had to admire his skill). “Oh, and thanks for the booze, you git.”

Liam still didn’t say anything, and didn’t eat the biscuit.

Niall returned to the reason as to why he had called these three specific trainee’s to meet with him.

“It’s getting ever closer to the day we officially welcome our Luna to our pack,” Niall began. He noticed how a weird sort of hush fell on the already silent room. “We’ve finally met, properly, and we’ve already bonded – to a certain degree.”

It was hard to miss the twinkle in Niall’s eye and the twitch of his lips when he spoke about his mate, his Luna.

“Congratulations,” Tristan offered.

“Thanks,” Niall shook his head, breaking out of his trance.

“But, Louis is only half Wolf. He’ll have a wolf presence inside him now – now that we’ve met and everything – but we all know that Louis will, sadly, not be able to turn into a Wolf,” It sounded like Niall was swallowing pebbles, before he continued. “So, Louis will need protection, ASAP. At the moment, when he’s still an innocent about our world, and our way of living, it’s not too bad; I have protector’s watching him wherever he goes – and his mother, Jay, is one of the best protectors we’ve got,” Niall paused, as if to let this sink in. No one said anything, too eager to listen to the Alpha. “But when our world becomes apparent to Louis, when we are fully mated, there will be threats, no doubt about it. Best way to get to a Pack Alpha? Take out their Luna.”

That was no lie. The easiest way to destroy a pack, was to take out the mother. And in doing that, you made the pack Alpha lose their mind. After that, the destroyers just had to sit back and watch as the Alpha led their pack to destruction, blinded for revenge of their mate’s death.

“I’m not saying, at all, that I cannot handle a little threat – in no certain terms am I going to let any harm come to my Louis,” And boy, did Niall sound fierce. Harry was _not_ going to _ever_ get himself in a position where he found himself on the receiving end of that tone. “But,” Niall continued, his voice back to his formally-informal voice. “It wouldn’t hurt to have some extra protection.”

“That and its tradition,” Liam scoffed, finally speaking for the first time since arriving. Niall turned his playful glare on his best friend.

“Liam’s right,” Niall carried on. “This is where you boys come in. Ever heard of a Luna Protector?”

“Yeah,” Ross shrugged.

A Luna Protector is a dedicated Protector, dedicated to protect the Luna at all costs – no one else. Traditionally there was only supposed to be one Luna Protector, but you could have no more than 3. Luna Protectors in a pack were rare, because having a Luna that needed protection was just as rare; the Luna either had to be physically unable to protect themselves, or – more commonly – a human. It was near damn impossible for a human to survive a wolf attack, it’s why Luna Protectors were introduced.

“Because Louis is human, by law he has to have at least one protector. I’ve assigned him 3 – you three.”

“What?” Harry gasped, although he had put two and two together a moment ago, it still shocked him when it was said aloud.

“I’ve watched you three train for roughly 4 years. It’s why I never allowed you to move up – to be chosen as a Pack Warrior or Pack Protector. There’s a different course of training needed for Luna Protectors – but I wanted you at your best before I moved you up, I wanted to make sure that I had chosen right – that you could prove yourselves. And you did.”

It was no secret, all three Beta’s basked in the praise.

“I never told you my reasons for keeping you in base training, with the pre-knowledge that it could make you slack off a bit – I wanted to push you and watch you improve and blossom into the perfect warrior and protector, rolled into one, even without attending the Saturday sessions.” Niall couldn’t stop smiling. “I’d be proud and reassured to assign you the protectors of my Louis.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback is appreciated!!  
> xxWildMagicxx


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Louis takes Doris and Ernest to the park with Mark, meets another toddler who calls him 'Lu' and questions why everyone smiles and greets him. Mark and Jay have an argument and Louis gets a text from a friend he hasn't spoke to in over 6 years.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I posted to Tumblr about an hour or two ago, about how I was suffering writer's block, that i still had half of this chapter to write and that I didn't know when I was going to update. Then I open my TS word document and ace this chapter easily!! Like, wow... I don't know where the inspiration came from - but there you go!! A brand new chapter for you all!! (Sadly, only a mention of Niall in this chappie!!)

** **

** Chapter 7 **

Louis walked out of Silver Valley Secondary School in a state of shock. He had expected to walk in and be told to get lost, expected to find out that he had been a victim of a prank call – but that had been so far from what had actually happened; he’d walked in and introduced himself, went to explain about the call he’d received but they hadn’t let him go any further when they heard his name. The two Beta receptionists broke into huge smiles and big greetings, it had freaked Louis out just a little; they’d called through to the Head Mistress, and she’d apparently dropped everything to come and meet with him… they seemed just a little too enthusiastic about him working there. But, it was all legit – Louis had filled out a large wad of official looking paperwork, had visited around the school (Phoebe and Daisy had loved bumping into him in the hallway during a classroom change) and had even got to see the class in which he’d teach… it all seemed extremely real, especially when he was given a welcome pack and an ID badge with his name and picture on it.

It was official, come September he would be a drama teacher at Silver Valley Secondary School.

He shouted his arrival when he walked back through the front door of the Tomlinson household. He was surprised when Doris came running around the corner towards him, stumbling over her cute, red welly boots. She babbled happily, her arms held out towards him. He broke out in a laugh, crouching down to scoop her up into his arms.

“Hiya,” He cooed, gently running his finger pads over her tummy, making her giggle and push at his hands.

“Hiya,” She repeated in her cute little baby voice.

“Are you going out?” He questioned as he began to carry her further into the house, into the living room from where Doris had just escaped from.

“Park!” She exclaimed, bouncing up and down in his arms excitedly. She had Louis’ t-shirt balled up in her fists, giggling happily.

“You’re going to the park?” Louis asked, acting shocked and excited, making his voice sound sweeter.

“Yeah. I cream.”

“And you get ice-cream too?” Louis gasped over dramatically. “Aren’t you a lucky little lady?”

“I cream! I cream!” She repeated in her happy little tone as Louis set her down on the carpet again once they were in the living room.

Ernest waddled over to him and held up a blue wellington boot, exactly the same as his sisters, but it a different colour.

“Shoe,” He explained proudly, waving it at Louis.

“Ernie!” Mark scolded lightly from over by the coffee table. Mark was packing up the nappy bag that they needed for their outing with the two infants – but it looked like the youngest set of Tomlinson twins were making it difficult. “I told you to keep your welly’s on.”

“It’s alright Dad, I got him,” Louis sighed helpfully, picking Ernest off of the floor and plonking him on the edge of the sofa before he could make and objections. Ernie babbled on, repeating the word ‘park’ over and over again as he kicked his legs a little.

“Alright wriggly bum,” Louis cooed at his only brother. “Let’s put your welly’s on.” He took the wellington from the 17 month old.

“Shoe!” Ernest proclaimed, pointing at it.

“It’s a welly,” Louis corrected kindly. “Can you saw welly?” He asked as he guided the infants foot into it.

“Shoe!” Ernest said again.

“Welly,” Louis repeated for him, pushing on the sole of the boot so Ernest’s foot plopped right into place comfortably.

“Shoe,” This time, Ernest’s voice turned serious and he squinted his eyes at his brother. Louis laughed at his little grumpy expression.

“Trust me,” Mark called from across the room. “You are not getting the child to say anything he doesn’t want to.” The two adults laughed as Louis helped Ernest back down to the floor.

“Stubborn, that’s what you are; just like your mother,” Louis smiled, patting Ernest’s head as he dodged the 1 year old so that he could help his father.

“So, how did it go?” Mark asked, eyes flickering up to meet Louis’ briefly before falling behind him at his two youngest children – they were holding hands and stomping their feet in their wellingtons.

“Great,” Louis spoke, also looking over at the laughing children. “Really, really great. I nearly didn’t walk in, thought that it might have been a prank or something. I mean, I’m going to be having serious words with Fliss about just giving out my phone number – but I’m also going to buy her a big bar of chocolate!”

“Well, I’m glad it went well – I told you it wasn’t a prank,” Mark offered lightly, smiling at his oldest child.

“I know, I know – I should have listened.”

“Well, you never did listen, even when you were a youngster. I didn’t think it would change just because you’re all grown up now,” Mark joked, zipping up the nappy bag and slinging it over his shoulder. He pulled Louis into one of his warm hugs and let the smaller male nuzzle into his neck, basking in the warmth. “But I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

~ TS ~

Louis didn’t really take much notice at first. It wasn’t entirely weird, but as time went on it turned out to be really weird. He didn’t say anything to his father as they walked the twins to the park, knowing that the older Omega would just laugh at him for being over observant.

The park was busy for 2pm on a school day, but the twins didn’t mind; they went off and joined some other children their age in the sandpit, completely abandoning their brother and father as they did. Louis and Mark managed to find a spare bench to perch themselves on as they watched the two young children play.

Even at the park though, Louis perceived the watchful eyes of those around him; the smiles and greetings that everyone chucked his way if they so much as past him. It was nice, sure, and not that unusual, he knew… but what did strike him as strange was how his small hometown had turned out so polite in 6 years… Louis was sure not everyone had been this civil when he had left for university.

When Ernest dragged Louis over to the swing set and practically demanded to be pushed, Louis let the thoughts fall from his mind. He got engrossed with his little brother as he pushed Ernie on the swing, from the front. Every so often, he’d playfully grab at the little boys feet when he swung towards him, and make gobbled sounds as he did so – this always, without fail, sent Ernest into fits of giggled, hunched over the front of the swing as he laughed.

For a couple of minutes, Louis happily continue indulging Ernie on the swing, completely forgetting about his previous concerns. That was until he felt a pull at his trouser leg.

Looking down, Louis had expected to see Doris’ pout as she pointed at the swing her brother was in and grumbled _‘me’_ , expecting her brother to understand that it was her turn now. But instead, he was surprised to find a little lad no older than 18 months staring up at him with deep, wide, hazel coloured eyes.

“Oh, hello,” Louis cooed, pushing the swing as it came towards him. “Where did you come from, huh? Are you lost little fella?”

The boy stared up at him, almost lovingly – as if he knew Louis.

“Lu,” The boy said softly, finger pointing upwards towards Louis.

Louis’ eyebrows shot up. He was pretty certain he had never seen the lad in his life.

“Lu,” He said again, the other hand coming up. Fist’s clenched and unclenched and Louis recognised this as the silent demand to be picked up. Louis didn’t know what to do; the boy was practically saying his name (he was probably babbling, but it was be one hell of a coincidence) and here he was asking a stranger to hold him in their arms – that wasn’t really normal 18 month old behaviour.

“Lu,” The boy pouted, his voice harder as he tried to get the man to understand him. It really was frustrating for him.

“’Gain. ‘Gain,” Ernie ordered, swinging his legs as the swing started to slow down – Louis wasn’t pushing it. “’Gain. ‘Gain!”

“Joseph!” A woman’s voice called. “Joseph!”

The woman was clearly the little boy’s mother, their resemblance scary. She was hurrying towards Louis and her son, calling Joseph’s name and trying to get his attention. Joseph, the little boy, looked towards his mother for a second, before looking back at Louis.

“Lu,” He repeated, pointing to Louis.

“Joseph,” The woman had approached them now and scooped the young lad into her arms. “Come on now, leave the nice man alone.”

“Mama,” Joseph exclaimed, looking at his mother. He pointed at Louis once again. “Lu!”

“Yes dear,” Mother hushed her son, as she turned to Louis. “I’m terribly sorry about him. He has a tendency to wonder off,” She laughed trying to make light of the conversation. “I hope he wasn’t too much of a bother.”

Louis, who hadn’t been able to get a word in edgeways (not that he had tried to), was still staring dumbfounded at the woman and (more specifically) the little boy in her arms – who had just happened to babble a sound that sounded like his name.

“Um,” Louis tried desperately to find his words. He took a slow gulp, wetting his mouth again. “No, no – just a little surprised, that’s all.”

“Sorry,” The woman apologised again. Then she made a soft, quiet frustrated noise which sounded very much like a curse word described as a sigh. “How rude of me,” She started mumbling, and Louis wasn’t too sure whether she was talking to herself of him. “I haven’t introduced myself.”

Suddenly there was an arm thrusted out towards him.

“Patricia Black,” She stated.

Louis automatically took her hand, not wanting to come off as rude.

“Louis Tomlinson,” He uttered quietly. Ernie was still in the background, swimming his legs. He wasn’t calling to be pushed again, but he was getting bored rather quickly.

“It’s nice to meet you Louis,” Patricia nodded once. “I’ll see you around?”

“Yeah…” Louis muttered, inhaling deeply. “See you around…”

~ TS ~

“You alright?” Mark asked Louis a little while later when they were back at home. They hadn’t long put the twins down for their daily, hour nap and were sat at the dining table in the kitchen drinking hot tea. “You seem awful quiet.”

“I’m fine,” Louis mumbled, thoughts everywhere. All the politeness today hadn’t really shocked him too much – but it definitely was a change to how things used to be… he was sure of it. It had him trying to think back to before he left for Uni, trying to remember how civil everyone had been back then.

“Mmhmm,” Mark nodded sarcastically, knowing that his son was anything but ‘fine’. He knew something was on Louis’ mind. “What is it?”

Louis stayed silent for a moment, running his tongue across his top row of teeth. He looked up at his father and decided just to come out with it.

“You’re going to think I’m stupid,” Louis began.

“Stupid enough to get a job at Silver Valley, yes. Go on,” Mark spoke lightly, smiling the whole time as he encouraged his son to continue.

“Okay. Did you notice how polite everyone was at the park?”

“Excuse me?” Mark asked, shocked.

“See – it sounds silly.”

“No, no,” Mark reassured. “You just caught me off guard. I was expecting you to come out with something about your job… or maybe your love life.”

“I don’t have a love life Dad,” Louis mumbled, eyes darting to the half drank cup of tea in his hands. Louis didn’t see Mark’s closed eyes and sad look.

“So – what’s this about everyone being polite?”

“Just – on the way to the park, and while we were there… lots of people smiled at us and said hello.”

“They’re just being friendly Lou,” Mark told him with a shrug. “Why has this troubled you so much?”

“It hasn’t…” Louis lied easily.

“Really?”

“I just think it’s weird, s’all.”

“Why’s it weird?”

“Well,” Louis stuttered over his words. Was it really that odd that so many people had said hello? “It was like everyone we passed had something to say to us… and I’m pretty sure that it hasn’t always been like this…”

“Things change Lou,” Mark reassured. He knew exactly what was going on, he too had noticed the crazily amount of people who had been so nice to Louis – he had been hoping that Louis hadn’t noticed. Now he had a task on his hand to convince Louis that it had just been coincidence and wasn’t because he was a ‘Luna’ to a werewolf pack. “You have been gone a couple of years – maybe you just forgot how civil everyone is here?”

“See, I thought about this… but I always remember you complaining about how little politeness this town actually has.”

 _Fuck…_ how was Mark supposed to dig himself out of this hole now?

“Maybe it’s one of those weird days that google celebrate?” Mark suggested.

“Yeah? Like what?”

“I dunno… World Hello Day?” Mark proposed sheepishly.

“World Hello Day?” Louis scoffed. “Dad, I don’t think there’s such a thing as ‘World Hello Day’.”

“How do you know?”

“Because it sounds stupid.”

“As stupid as ‘Don’t step on a bee’ day?”

“What?” Louis was completely and utterly confused. “Don’t step of a bee day?”

“Daisy went on about it for weeks,” Mark dismissed with a wave of his hand. “My point is, just because the day sounds stupid, doesn’t mean it’s not real.”

“Right…” Louis dragged the word out, raising his mug to his mouth so he could take a gulp of his drink.

“Honestly Louis, I wouldn’t worry about it at all,” Mark comforted, trying to move the conversation on.

“It wasn’t just that…”

Mark silently groaned… he didn’t know how much longer he could keep up this charade. Soon he was going to run out of excuses about why everyone had been so nice; run out of excuses for everything.

“What else?” He asked.

“There was a boy about Ernie and Doris’ age… never seen him before, and he’s tugging on my trousers and practically saying my name!”

“What? What do you mean?”

“He was calling me Lou – he kept repeating it as he was asking me to pick him up…”

“Oh…”

“Yeah, figure that one out…”

“I’m sure it was just one hell of a coincidence.”

~ TS ~

Later that evening, when the parents were alone, Mark told Jay all about his conversation with Louis. The two stopped their conversation when Phoebe came into the living room, complaining about her twin; they decided to bid their children goodnight (the youngest twins were already fast asleep in their relatively new toddler beds) and went on up for an early night. Mark took the baby monitor and Jay made them both a cup of tea to take up with them.

“I don’t know why you kept it from him,” Jay shook her head as she started to pull off her clothes to get changed into some pyjamas.

“What was I supposed to say?” Mark hissed as he threw his t-shirt to the ground. “ _Everyone wants to say hello to their new Luna. That’s right – Niall’s staked a claim on you and now you’re the co-runner of a werewolf pack. Oh, and you’re mother’s a wolf too._ ” He spoke with sarcasm and a clear dislike for the situation.

“You know it’s nothing like that!” Jay cried, standing in nothing but her underwear. “It is not a claim.”

“What else do you call it?!” Mark demanded to know. He hadn’t even got to taking his trousers off yet. He was so frustrated… he thought when he had been talking to Louis earlier, he had been doing right by not telling him – apparently not.

“Did I ‘claim’ you?!” Jay argued back. “When we were talking about mating, did I ever once use the word claim?”

“What?” Mark stuttered quieter than before. “No…”

“Did I ever make it sound like I was an animal who was stalking their prey?” Jay continued, crossing her arms and staring her Omega down.

“No,” Mark sighed, looking at his feet.

“Did I ever make it sound like I was degrading you? Not allowing you a life outside of me? When I told you about my world, did I ever tell you talk about not letting you do anything? Ever let you think that I wouldn’t love you, or take care of you?” Because to a wolf, that’s what the word ‘claim’ meant.

“Of course not.”

“Then why would you suggest that Niall would do that to Louis… to your own son?”

“I didn’t!” Mark defended himself. “I never said that!”

“Well it sure sounded like it,” Jay snapped, yanking open the draw that housed her pyjamas and picked out a nightie. She was clearly riled.

“He’s a child!” Mark continued, not bothering to get ready for bed any further. “He hasn’t been given the change to give his consent to this!”

“Excuse me?” Jay rounded on him, furious. “Are you telling me that my Alpha is forcing my son into this?”

“Are you not?!” Mark all but screamed.

“Tell me something Mark,” Jay spoke, her face scrunched up in disgrace, her voice hard and clearly dominating her Omega. “When Louis went into heat did Niall once make any advances?”

“How do I know? Your _Alpha_ wouldn’t even let me see my son!”

“You know for a fact that Niall never once did anything to harm Louis! That he always had Louis’ best interests at heart! Louis was in _heat_! How hard do you think it must have been for Niall to hold back? To not help his _true mate_ in the ways that he wanted to? Of course he wasn’t going to let anyone see Louis. Louis was vulnerable, unable to protect himself and he was in a compromising situation – as a fellow Alpha I can understand why Niall didn’t let anyone into his room!”

“What about the other Alpha?” Mark cried. “He let him in without so much as a growl!”

“Beta Liam is Alpha Niall’s most trusted ally – his best friend! Niall knows that Liam isn’t going to be of any danger!”

“And Louis is my son!” Mark screamed, hands flying in the air. “I’m a danger to my oldest child?” He asked, choking on unshed tears.

“That is not what I said Mark!” Jay spoke harshly. The raw voice of his mate’s Alpha command pushed Mark over the edge and he burst into tears. Jay continued to speak to him, knowing that if she tried to comfort Mark through his crying, she just end up pushing him further down into a possible Omega Space. “Has it ever occurred to you that the reason why Niall didn’t let Louis have any contact with us the first couple of days was because he took Louis’ thoughts and feelings into mind? Do you really think Louis would have wanted us, his family, to see him like that?”

Mark was stumped for a response. That did make sense – Mark, being human, had never experienced a heat; but he’d heard about them and they didn’t sound pleasant. He turned his back on his wife, hands covering his face as he sobbed into them.

~ TS ~

Louis knew he had a conscience. He also knew that it was often described as that that little voice inside your head. But personally, Louis’s conscience had never owned a ‘little voice’. He’d never questioned it really, purely because he never even realised his conscience didn’t have a voice.

That all changed of course, when he woke up one morning to what felt like another presence inside of him, clearly restless. He brushed it off as being a bad dream that he couldn’t remember and went downstairs to join his family for breakfast.

He was not surprised to find a thick tension in the air.

It had been hard to miss his parents arguing last night, but apart from hearing small titbits (like his name being yelled) it had been hard to understand what they were actually fighting about. He chopped that up to being because he had his TV on loud to try and distract Daisy and Phoebe who had come to seek comfort in him, away from their parent’s dispute.

“Morning?” Louis tried carefully. It was clear just about anything was going to set his mother off.

Jay sat at the table with her arms folded and a fierce scowl on her face. Her eyes were glassed over as if she was in another world and Louis understood this as her thinking look. Mark sat opposite her, eyes red and puffy as he chopped up an apple into even slices which he divided between the set of two youngest twins. Neither parent looked up when Louis entered, but Felicite spared him a sad glance.

Louis sat down in the spare seat beside his father and crumpled his nose up in confusion when he was attacked with what felt like a hundred different scents. Somehow he was able to pick up on a waft of what could only be described as sadness.

“Can anyone else smell that?” Louis asked, wrinkling his nose again when everyone’s eyes slid to him.

“Smell what?” Lottie asked solemnly. It was clear that the falling out that had happened between the two parents had sorely rubbed off on everyone else too.

“I dunno. It’s almost like… you’re going to think I’m bonkers… it smells like sadness,” Louis spoke slowly, as if this was going to make him sound less insane that what he felt. The one thing Louis left out was how the scent seemed to be falling off of Mark, he was sure that would have sold it, made him sound completely crazy.

“You’ve lost it,” Felicite decided quietly. “Since when does sadness have a scent?”

It was quiet for a minute; a minute in which Mark turned to give Jay a pointed glance which she responded with a warning glare.

“I dunno, you’re right,” Louis dismissed with a shake of his head. “I’m probably imagining it.”

 ** _‘You’re not,’_** a soft voice mumbled to him restlessly. Before Louis could think too much into it, his father spoke up from beside him.

“Probably,” Mark was stubbornly going against his Alpha and what she had said last night; he was going to keep the whole Werewolf thing from Louis for as long as possible – give him at least a few more months of innocence to what was inevitable.

“Mark,” Jay snapped loudly. As she did, a strong scent wave hit Louis, this time his from his mother – but Louis didn’t need to be able to smell the frustration, that seemed to just be rolling off of her, to know it was there.

Mark whimpered his apology and quickly bowed his head in submission when his mate’s Alpha Command hit. Jay rarely used it, but you damn well knew about it when she did.

Louis too was effected by the Alpha Command and found himself dropping his eyes to the empty plate in front of him. The Tomlinson girls didn’t say anything, although it was clear everyone was tense – tenser than they had been a moment ago. Even the youngest set of twins were awfully quiet, seeming to be effected by the whole to-do as well.

Jay got up from the table, her chair the only thing making noise as it was scraped against the tiled flooring of the kitchen. Louis gulped, not even daring to let his eyes follow her movements; and he knew his father was feeling that 10 times worse than he was.

A moment later, Jay’s soft hand was on Louis’ shoulder as she bent over him to dish out some pancakes. She placed a bottle of syrup and a small bowl of fruit in front of him too.

“Sorry lovely,” Jay apologised gently to him, and Louis found the Alpha Command lifting off of him. “I didn’t mean for it to affect you too.” She squeezed his shoulders in a comforting gesture before returning to her seat across from Mark.

“Thanks Mum,” Louis smiled as he cautiously moved her hand forward to help himself to some fruit. Even he knew that his smile didn’t quite reach his eyes like it usually did.

As Louis ate alongside his sisters, it stayed quiet at the table. No one dared speak, afraid they’d upset Mum and get themselves in trouble too. Louis couldn’t help but pity his father and the amount of trouble he must be in for Jay to be acting like she was.

The morning progressed slowly after that, but in pretty much the same fashion. Louis was left with the youngest set of twins as the other girls went off to school; Louis didn’t mind watching over the two toddlers as it would keep him and them out of their parent’s hair while they were sorting out their lovers tiff.

He put Doris and Ernest down for their daily hour nap at 12PM, and then was left to his own devices in the living room. He had the baby monitor on and placed on the coffee table, ready to pounce if either of his sleeping siblings needed him. He had the TV on quietly, but his mind was preoccupied with thoughts of his parents’ falling out.

 _ **‘They’ll get over it. They always do, don’t they?’**_ A voice, the same one that he had ignored this morning, said to him. Louis sat up straight as soon as he heard it.

Louis knew that it was all in his head, knew it was speaking to him and that only he could hear it – he didn’t know how he knew that, he just did. And now he was by himself and with nothing better to do he was able to pay his full attention to it.

“Hello?” Louis spoke cautiously. He felt stupid, talking to himself in an empty room.

_**'Hey, Genius! You don’t have to talk aloud. I can hear your thoughts.’** _

“What?” Louis shook his head, placing his palms to his temples in an attempt to push the speaker out of him. He had to be losing it.

_**‘FYI; you’re not crazy.’** _

Louis ignored it and reached forwards to grab the TV remote. He turned the volume up a couple of notches hoping that it would distract him enough – that if he pretend the speaker didn’t exist that he would kinda just vanish.

_**‘Not going to work. We’re one now. Well, we always were…’** _

Louis didn’t reply, keeping his unblinking eyes on the TV and trying to lose himself in the documentary. It seemed to work as he didn’t hear the voice for roughly 10 minutes. It only made a reappearance again when the now distinct scent of his mother popped her head round the door.

 _ **‘Mum!’**_ The voice all but screamed when Louis spun round to see her. It seemed to be jumping for joy inside of him; Louis could sense the want coming off of this clear other presence – but want for what, Louis was unsure.

“Me and your Dad are popping out for an hour or two,” Jay explained, a soft smile on her face – as if she knew something that Louis didn’t… but Louis wasn’t paying too much attention, trying to rid himself of the ecstatic feeling inside him that wasn’t quite his own.

“Okay,” Louis nodded. “Are you okay now?”

“I think so,” Jay walked further into the room. She could feel the pull of Louis’ once dormant wolf – it recognised her as his mother. Her own wolf wanted to hold the wolf side of her son that she’d never met – and Jay could indulge herself while calming the worry and confusion that Louis was probably going through right now with the newest addition inside of him. “It was just a misunderstanding, on both our parts. So were going to head out and clear our heads a bit – maybe get some ice-cream.”

“Good,” Louis agreed quietly as Jay sat down next to him, on the edge of the sofa. “I hate it when you guys fight. We all do,” He didn’t look at her as he said this, finding his hands rather interesting.

He felt a hand on his shoulder as the Alpha woman shuffled closer to him. She wrapped her arm around him and guided him into her chest, exhaling loudly.

Louis relaxed in his mother’s hold, knowing that everything really was on the mend. But the presence, the voice, inside of him also calmed in the arms of the older woman. It was a feeling that Louis wasn’t sure how to describe; it felt as if the spirit-like presence inside of him was embracing happily with a similar presence that he could clearly, somehow, describe as his mother. Louis couldn’t help but picture two large dog’s... no, wolf’s… wrapping their head’s around the other’s neck in the parody of a hug. They held this position for a moment before the presence of his mother let a warm tongue swipe at his snout.

It was a weird sensation, and even though it wasn’t actually happening, it made Louis pull away from his mother and blink slowly at her. She offered a sad smile, cupping his cheek in her hand.

“Sorry,” She apologised; for what, Louis wasn’t sure. She pressed a chaste kiss to his forehead before standing up. “Are you going to be alright here by yourself?”

“I’ll be fine,” Louis reassured, smiling – trying to rid himself of the image or himself and his mother as wolves; why he had pictured that he didn’t know. “Promise.”

“Okay then. Were only a call away – and if you need anything, you can call for Niall too. He really likes you, you know.”

“Mum,” Louis blushed bright red, turning his attention anywhere but his mother. The presence inside of him seemed to become even more excited than before.

 _ **‘Yes! Mate!’**_ It kept repeating.

Jay laughed at the stark difference between boy and wolf’s reactions.

“Alright. Sorry, sorry,” She apologised. “We’ll be heading out in the next 5 minutes – okay?”

“Yeah,” Louis acknowledged, still red as a tomato and still not looking his mother in the eye. “Have fun.”

~ TS ~

Louis had been at home with just Doris and Ernest for about an hour. Currently the twins were sat on the floor playing with the wooden puzzle boards that Louis had set out for them after they had woken up. Louis himself was watching them out of the corner of his eye as he surfed the net on his laptop.

The voice, the presence still wouldn’t leave him alone. It kept bugging him, commenting on simple things that Louis came across no his Facebook and Tumblr pages; and trying to assist Louis through his Candy Crush level. He also wouldn’t stop pointing out what he could do for his twin siblings – and what was worse the voice kept refereeing to the twins as his own siblings, and for Louis that was just wrong.

“Will you just shut up?” Louis yelled at the voice, using his thoughts to communicate. “Who the hell do you think you are?”

 ** _‘I’m your conscience,’_** the voice decided. _**‘You can call me William.’**_

This seemed to do the trick and Louis stopped. He had always had a conscience, everyone did… but if this voice – William – was telling the truth and he wasn’t really losing his marbles, then why was his conscience only now making an appearance? It just didn’t make a lot of sense.

_**‘I’ve been lying dormant inside of you since you were born. But now we’ve met our mate, we can finally be one – like we’re supposed to be.’** _

Mate? What? Louis had few friends – had many more back when he had been at school.

**_‘We’re talking a different type of mate here.’_ **

Louis wasn’t stupid, he knew what the voice meant but was trying to see it any other way than that. He hadn’t met anyone that he had wanted to ‘mate’ with… ever. And, for the record – he wasn’t some animal! When he found the person he was going to spend the rest of his life with, he was going to make love, not mate.

 ** _‘Niall,’_ ** William whispered.

 _“No!”_ Louis was quick to shut him down. _“Absolutely not!”_

 ** _‘You can’t deny it!’_ ** William argued, pushing images of when Louis had been in heat to the front of his mind. _‘ **He was the only one to help us. Why do you think that was?’**_

 _“No! Stop it!”_ Louis begged, shaking his head – attempting to rid himself of the clear memories. He didn’t question why they were clearer than ever.

William (and since when had Louis started to recognise the presence by the name he’d given himself?) stopped the flashing images of Louis’ heat, understanding that it was confusing his human.

 ** _‘You’ll come around,’_ ** William stated confidently, seeming to stop talking after that. Louis had a feeling that his conscience had retreated into the back of his mind, curled up in on himself with a sad look in his wolf eyes. (There he went again – imagining William, his conscience as a wolf!)

Louis decided to use this moment to stand up, check the twins’ nappies and go about making them a small snack to cover them until tea time.

Sliced apples and cheese crackers were placed on either of the twins’ highchair trays, along with their respective sippy cups filled with juice. He leant across the table and talked to them as they munched on their fruit and crackers.

The twins babbled back, seemingly happy in their older brother’s company. Their speech was getting quite good, especially for someone of their age.

Louis was happy to talk about nonsense to the two infants, until his phone bleeped alerting him of a text. He was quick to retrieve his phone from his pocket, in case it was either of his parents or his sisters that might need him.

He was surprised at the name that flashed up. He had had his number saved to his phone for over 8 years – but had barely used it. He certainly hadn’t used it, or received anything from the number in over 6 of those long years. Course, he’d debated deleting the number – but he never got round to it, always too busy with university to worry too much about it.

It was Harry Styles – a college friend. The two had never met outside of college, unless college needed them to – but they had been on the same course and had got on okay – there was Harry’s adopted brother, Zayn, who was with them as well, but Louis got on better with Harry as Zayn was rather secluded. But even then Louis had felt more like the third wheel, especially at the beginning of college. They hadn’t talked to one another since Louis had left for Uni… so it was really weird that he received a text from him.

_Hi. Been a while. How are you?_

A simple, 7 word text that was to start a big change in Louis’ life; he just didn’t know it yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Joseph (the little boy at the park) was calling Louis 'Lu'. Like Louis explained to Mark, he was calling him by his name; 'Lou'. For those of you who don't quite understand - Joseph and his mother (patricia) are members of Niall's pack and Joseph was able to recognise Louis as his Luna. So when he was calling Louis, 'Lu' - he was trying to say 'Luna'.  
> And if it wasn't clear, William (Louis' 'conscience') is actually his wolf talking to him!! Now he's met his mate, his wolf is no longer dormant and is now awake inside of him - which is why when Louis pictures William he imagines a wolf. (ALSO; the reason his wolf is called William is because the person's middle name is the name given to the wolf - if they have one.)  
> Thanks for reading!!  
> Feedback is appreciated!!  
> xxWildMagicxx


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Louis' home alone and Niall pays a visit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologise, most of this chapter is Harry and Zayn - but i'm really interested in exploring them two. (DON'T ASK WHEN LIAM'S GOING TO MAKE ANOTHER APPEARANCE!! SOON I HOPE!!) There is some Nouis in this chapter, and next chapter I hope to be purely them.... but knowing me, nothing is set in stone!!  
> Just thought I'd get this out for you all!!  
> You're amazing!!

** Chapter 8 **

Zayn received another gift a couple of days later. It arrived at breakfast again, in a posh, blue box wrapped up with a silver bow. A gift card accompanied it, as usual;

_‘Counting down the minutes until we can be together. L. x.’_

“Another present?” Des asked as he arrived at the table, slightly late today due to an emergency Doctor’s appointment that was arranged last minute.

“From this mysterious L, too,” Anne smiled. Zayn shrugged, just looking at the box in front of him on the table. No one seemed to know who ‘L’ was, thank goodness; but Zayn did; he wanted to keep it that way… a secret. If anyone knew who he was, Zayn would never hear the end of it. “He hasn’t opened it though. Just keeps staring at it.”

Zayn looked up through his eyelashes at his two parents. He didn’t really want to open it, but he knew they would still want to know what it was even if he opened it when he was alone. Reaching forward, Zayn picked up the small box and pulled the end of the ribbon until it fell away onto the table.

Inside was a watch. A really nice watch with a large clock face and a fancy, black leather strap. Clearly it was expensive, and a lot of thought had gone into it – anyone who knew Zayn knew he was fussy about everything and it took him ages to find the perfect thing for him (watches included). It took a lot for Zayn to fall in love with something at first sight, but this watch really was beautiful.

“Oh Zayn. It’s lovely,” Anne exclaimed when he showed them. “Whoever L is, they certainly have a lot of money.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Zayn blushed, because his parents just didn’t have any idea.

“Who is he?” Des asked, almost worriedly. “Are you sure you have no idea who he is?” Des had always assumed that the mysterious L was a male, and had never been too impressed with him.

“No idea,” Zayn lied, shaking his head.

“I might have to talk to the Alpha or Beta about this,” Des debated with himself out loud.

“No!” Zayn cried out loudly, shocking himself and his parents into silence. The tables closest to them quietened down and glanced over at the sudden outburst. “I mean… it’s not really too bad is it? It’s just gifts and cards.”

“I don’t know Zayn,” Des shook his head. “This is just how it stars and it will just move on from there.”

“Leave him alone Desmond. It’s a secret admirer, not a stalker,” Anne scolded her husband with a disgusted look.

“Where’s Harry?” Zayn asked, wanting up from the table and away from the conversation.

“He’s staring at his phone again,” Des mumbled with a frown on his face. “That’s all he ever does now.

“It’s been 2 days, and no he doesn’t,” Anne reprimanded him. “You know he’s just worried. He wants to make a good impression on Alpha and Luna.”

“I’m going to go and see him,” Zayn cut in, before Desmond could reply. Zayn didn’t waste time gathering the gift and moving out of the dining hall.

~ TS ~

After a quick stop off at his bedroom to deposit the gifted watch, Zayn made his way to Harry’s room. While their father hadn’t specified exactly where Harry was, that was Zayn’s best guess.

Sure enough, Zayn found Harry led face down on his bed, twisting his phone in his hands. Harry cast a quick glance over at the intruder who hadn’t knocked before entering, before he turned his attention back to the blank screen of his mobile.

“Has he still not replied yet?” Zayn asked sympathetically, sitting next to his brother on the edge of the bed. He pulled his socked feet up to cross his legs as he leant back slightly to be leaning against Harry.

“No,” Harry sighed deeply, dropping the phone on the pillow. “It’s been days.”

“Give him time. He’ll come round.”

“I just… Niall’s given me this chance to prove myself. And I kinda ruined it 8 years ago when I all but ignored him at college. I mean, what better chance to get to know the Luna than back then?”

“Okay, first off,” Zayn began to rant. “We didn’t ignore him. He kept to himself quite a bit – Louis was like that around everyone and you know it. Second; we didn’t know he was the Luna and he had no idea either – doubt he does now. And third; you didn’t know that the Alpha was going to assign you Luna protector! If Alpha Niall didn’t like the way you apparently ‘ignored’ Louis throughout college, then there is no way you would even be breathing right now, let alone protecting his most prized possession!”

A weird sort of hush fell on the room when Zayn finished. Harry knew that _everything_ Zayn had just said was absolutely true. Niall would have done a hell of a lot of background research on everyone he had even considered being a Luna protector – only the best of the best got chosen for the job… if Alpha Niall had found _any_ reason to even suspect that Harry wasn’t right for the job, he wouldn’t have been given it. Luna protectors were often described as ‘the perfect pack members’ and were definite role models for young pups.

Harry sighed heavily through his nose. He let his head fall until his forehead was resting against the pillow, centimetres from his mobile.

“You’re right,” Harry mumbled, voice quiet.

“I know I am,” Zayn remarked back, nudging his brother with his shoulder playfully. Harry snorted, but couldn’t help the smile on his face.

It went quiet again.

“I want to be than just Luna protector to Louis though… I want to be his best friend.”

“What about me?” Zayn gasped, overdramatically. He sniffed, feigning hurt. “I’m supposed to be your best friend.”

Harry laughed and rose his arm up to pull Zayn down beside him. He ruffled the raven hair on top of his head and danced his fingertips over Zayn’s ribs, ripping a laugh from deep within the Omega.

“You’ll always be my best friend, doofus!” Harry growled playfully, dodging Zayn’s failed attempts to push him away.

“Sure sounds like it,” Zayn cried around his laughter.

There was a time, about 10 years ago when Des and Anne had first taken him in that Zayn refused to be touched, in any way. He sometimes couldn’t even stand to be in the same room as them. But now, he trusted the Styles’ family – if he didn’t, there is no way Zayn would be allowing Harry to tickle him at all. He had his moments, like on the anniversary, where he would have flashbacks that would plague him for a little while and make him extra weary of his surroundings, but that didn’t stop him trusting the only family he had ever had.

“Why don’t you go and hang out with your new bestie, jerk!”

Zayn was the most tickliest person Harry knew (his wolf wasn’t much better) and Harry knew all of Zayn’s tickly spots and used this to his advantage. He dug his fingers gently into Zayn’s armpits. Zayn shrieked and tried to move away from the wriggling fingers, but to no avail.

Harry laughed at what he’d reduced the Omega to, a laughing, wriggling mess.

“Stop Harry! Stop!” Zayn laughed, water leaking from the corner of his eyes. Harry was quick to abide by his brother’s wishes, knowing how far he could go with Zayn and not even wanting to get close to pushing him.

Zayn’s laughing died down slowly, his chest heaving as he drew in deep breaths.

“Prick,” Zayn chuckled, wiping his eyes.

“You love me,” Harry declared, pulling Zayn closer to his chest and wrapping his arms securely around him.

“I suppose so,” Zayn sighed dramatically, as if it was the biggest hindrance ever.

~ TS ~

“Rise and shine sleepy head.”

Louis grumbled a curse under his breath as he clumsily turned onto his side, pulling his duvet up over his shoulder and tucking it under his chin. He didn’t want to wake up just yet, fuck whoever was trying to wake him.

**_‘But… Louis! Mate!’_ **

_‘Will, I’m sleeping,’_ Louis sent back in a half-asleep, half-awake response. The voice inside of him, that often identified himself as his conscience was jumping around inside of him.

Louis snuggled under the duvet and sighed happily. Even though William, his conscience, was bouncing around happily, Louis felt safe – a kind of safe he’d never felt before; he couldn’t quiet describe it.

Louis had never stopped picturing William as a wolf, for some strange reason; and had since accepted it, convincing himself that his spirit animal must be a wolf.

Currently William was pounding around in circles, tongue hanging out happily as he continued his mantra of **_‘Mate! Mate! Mate!’_**

“Louis hunny?” A very real voice spoke gently. A large hand ran through his hair, and as it did another wolf, a very large, alpha wolf, joined Louis’ picture of William.  He’d gotten used to seeing other ‘wolves’ with William – whenever his mother was nearby for example, so was the same tanned wolf. And sometimes, when out and about – Louis would often see ‘wolves’ greeting his, and with great respect.

The Alpha wolf seemed to smile, and William just got more excited.

 ** _‘James,’_** William barked happily. That was new; Louis had never heard of a James before – but for some reason, he felt like he knew the strange wolf.

 ** _‘Settle down pup,’_** The James wolf ordered lightly, no real meaning behind it. He seemed rather happy himself to see William.

William stopped bounding round in circles, but made his way quickly over to James.

The hand raked through his hair again, and at the same time, the Alpha wolf licked at William’s snout and Louis just suddenly knew… Niall was standing in his room, running his hand through his hair.

And suddenly, Louis was wide awake, jolting up in bed and jumping away from the blonde.

“Niall?” He cried, pulling the cover up around him.

James the wolf growled slightly, and William cowered until he was lying flat on his stomach, below the Alpha.

“Hello Louis,” Niall smiled kindly. He wanted nothing more than to growl at Louis too… he felt denied not being able to see his mate’s beautiful body – what did Louis have to hide from him? But he knew that Louis was half human and still didn’t know of the werewolf world, so it was all still new to him. Niall wasn’t going to push him like that.

“What are you doing here?”

“Your mum came into work and told me you were going to be home alone today,” Niall shrugged like it was no big deal. “I thought I’d come and spend some time with you.”

“I don’t need a bloody babysitter,” Louis heaved. “I’m 24.”

“I’m not… I’m not your babysitter,” Niall assured, voice confused.

“Then what are you doing here?” Louis grumbled, ignoring William who was telling him to let _mate_ stay.

“I didn’t want you being by yourself.”

Louis was quiet for a moment, wearily staring wide-eyed at Niall. A hurt-scent washed off of Niall and hit Louis’ nose suddenly, and Louis found himself feeling hurt too… but it wasn’t his own emotion (Louis couldn’t explain it).

“I dunno,” Niall sighed. “I’m sorry. Maybe I should have called.”

“Yeah,” Louis agreed with a gulp. He couldn’t bring himself to be mad at Niall anymore and if anything wanted to apologise and cuddle up in the Alpha’s arms. He made no move to do so.

“Shall I go?” Niall asked quietly – so quietly that Louis wondered just _how_ he had picked it up.

“No!” Louis cried loudly and suddenly. Niall looked up, surprised at Louis’ outburst. “I mean,” Louis hurried to correct himself. “No, it might be nice to get to know you.”

Niall broke out in a huge smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback is appreciated!!  
> xxWildMagicxx


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Niall opens up about how he's the boss of the 'family business' at such an early age.

** Chapter 9 **

Louis wasn’t entirely sure how the two had ended up curled up so closely together; but he did know that he was _really, really_ comfortable and he _really, really_ didn’t want to move. Niall smelt like freshly baked, chocolate chip cookies, mixed with a dash of hope, a splash of contentment and a large helping of pure love.

Louis nuzzled his nose into Niall’s shoulder, practically purring, and Niall’s arms tightened supportively around Louis’ body at the sound. The two were silent, just basking in the other’s company, having barely shared a word for nearly 30 minutes.

William was just as satisfied and happy as Louis was. He was snuggled up closely to James, his snout resting on the Alpha’s front legs. Every now and again, James would nuzzle into his fur, as if reassuring himself that William was still there.

Niall’s hand ran through Louis hair and Louis practically preened under the attention.

William barked softly, in thanks, tilting his head back into the crook of James’ leg, sticking his tongue out playfully. James looked down at the young pup and appeared to be smiling fondly.

Louis pushed himself further into Niall’s hand, not wanting the comforting gesture to stop. Niall got the message, continuing his massage.

“I need to cut my hair really,” Louis said suddenly, breaking the comfortable silence that they had both fallen into.

“What?” Niall asked quietly, not expecting the words.

“My hair. It’s getting too long and out of control,” Louis ran his own hand through his caramel locks, gently brushing Niall’s hand along the way. “I swear it’s got a mind of its own.”

“But I like it,” Niall explained, almost sadly. Louis could scent the truth behind the words, and suddenly felt bad for suggesting such a thing. _Did he really want to cut his hair that badly?_ _If Niall liked it, then what was wrong with it?_

“Well, thanks,” Louis sighed. “It’s just, I’ve got a new job, and I was just thinking I need to look smart and what-not.”

“Honestly,” Niall said, not leaving a beat. “You do look smart.”

Louis couldn’t help but burst out laughing.

James frowned at William, as the wolf rolled over on his back giggling. Niall, mirroring the face of his conscience, turned to look at Louis seriously.

“What?” He demanded to know.

“Smart? I’m currently wearing a two-day old t-shirt, my scruffiest pair of PJ bottoms and sporting bed hair. I also have showered since yesterday. I think it’s safe to say, I’m anything but smart at the moment.”

Niall smirked at the younger lad.

“Well. As long as you’re comfortable.”

“I am. And at the moment, that’s all that matters,” Louis agreed.

Niall couldn’t help but bask in the greatness that was his Omega. He had never met anyone quite like Louis, and he knew that he never would again. Everything about the smaller, younger lad was perfect and Niall couldn’t help but agree with nature – he had definitely been made for him. When they mated, Louis would make a great Luna, Niall was sure. He had all the right qualities and was already a great leader; he knew what he wanted, and he was great with kids. Niall couldn’t wait until the day he could officially call Louis’ his.

“Don’t you have to be at work today?” Louis asked suddenly. He didn’t know what had caused him to ask that question, but now he thought about it, he was rather intrigued. He realised he knew nothing about Niall’s work (or his mother’s really, for that matter. After all, the woman did work for the male Alpha.).

“No,” Niall explained. “They don’t need me today.”

“They don’t need you?” Louis questioned suspiciously. “Or _you_ decided that they didn’t need you?”

“Well…” Niall trailed off, answering Louis’ question without using words. Louis couldn’t help but laugh.

“Aren’t you worried that they’ll ruin your company without you there?” The Omega played along, giggling as he spoke.

“Na,” Niall shrugged. “Liam, my co-piolet, is pretty good at keeping everyone and everything in check.”

They fell silent again for a moment.

“Niall…” Louis began. Niall hummed to show his mate that he was listening. “How old are you?”

“26,” Niall answer happily.

“Bloody hell!” Louis cursed loudly. Niall was taken aback, shocked at the language that had just slipped from Louis’ lips. He didn’t have anything against his mate swearing, he was just shocked, never having heard such words come from the Omega.

“What?” Niall asked, quickly getting over his shock.

“Sorry,” Louis apologised, although he really didn’t sound it. “I just, I knew you were young. But you’re running your own business already?”

“Yeah. It’s the family business actually. I never planned to take charge so early on though.”

“Oh?” Louis questioned nosily.

“No,” Niall’s voice was suddenly deep with the sound of unshed tears, and a glance up at the Alpha confirmed the glassed over eyes. “My father… he um… I was next in line to take over when he died. He passed when I was 20. I’ve been running the business ever since.”

“I’m so sorry Niall,” Louis whispered, feeling Niall’s sadness on such a deep level. He hadn’t meant to intrude; he had just been curious. And now he felt like a huge jerk!

“Hey,” Niall breathed back, squeezing Louis’ shoulders in comfort – for both of them. He’d never really spoken about his father’s passing with anyone but his mother, not even Liam. But, with Louis, it felt right. “He’s a lot better off now anyway. Now he’s not hurting.”

“What happened?” Louis asked softly. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know, because of how personal it was to the Alpha; but he could sense that Niall wanted to talk about, but didn’t want to push such a depressing chat on Louis. And if Niall needed a shoulder to cry on, Louis was going to be there for him. They might have only recently met, but Louis felt a real close connection with the blonde already.

“He uh…” Niall breathed out a huge, sad, sigh. He was fighting with all his might to keep the tears at bay. “He suffered quite a serious stroke. It was horrible. I was there with him when it happened. He clutched at his head and started screaming and yelling out in pain. I tried getting through to him, but he wasn’t answering; they said he probably couldn’t hear me or understand me. I was screaming for help, while trying to lie him down on the floor,” Niall couldn’t do it anymore. A single tear slipped quickly down his cheek.

Louis didn’t say a single word, listening attentively, exactly how Niall and his father deserved.

“I was so scared…”

_A 19-year-old Niall was shaking in fear, the tears streaming down his face, with no indication of them stopping. He was acting very un-Alpha like, but he had no idea what was going on – his father wasn’t communicating with him, and he was clutching at his head and crying out in pain as he thrashed about._

_Then, right before his eyes, his father’s whole left side went dead still; Niall recognised it as paralysis._

_“HELP! SOMEONE HELP ME! PLEASE!”_

_James wasn’t doing much better than his human – standing over his father’s wolf, who had also just lost control of his body, barking in desperation._

_The door to his father’s office was slammed open, and the pack’s current Beta, Hank, rushed in._

_“Shit!” Hank cursed. Hank’s wolf, Tony, hurried over to the still wolf of the pack Alpha, sniffing curiously. “Fuck! WE NEED A MEDIC IN HERE ASAP! HURRY!”_

_And just when Niall thought it couldn’t get any worse, his father’s eyes closed and he just led dead still; his heart not thumping in his chest and no breath escaping from his mouth or nose._

_“DAD!” Niall screamed, shaking his shoulders in desperation. “NO! DAD!”_

“I don’t really know what happened after that. I was pulled away from him, being held back by one of my Dad’s best friends as the paramedic got to work.”

Niall paused to let it all sink in. Louis didn’t say anything, not wanting to interrupt anything else Niall wanted to say.

“They managed to revive him, barely. And rushed him to hospital, where he was put on emergency life support – they lost him three times in the ambulance on the two-minute journey there.”

“The Dr’s said that the only thing keeping him alive was the machine. And if, by some miracle he managed to breath without out, his life would be severely limited. He wouldn’t be able to do anything for himself. And both me and my mother agreed that was no life to live. We both knew what my father would want us to do for him…”

Niall didn’t have to say it for Louis to know that they had made the decision to turn off the life support machine.

“It was the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make.”

Louis wiped at his eyes, wetness surrounding them at the mere thought of what Niall had, had to do; and at such a young age!

“Oh Niall,” Louis sobbed, throwing his arms around the Alpha. Niall wound his arms around the body that was now completely on top of him, feeling a little better with his Omega in his arms. He too couldn’t help but cry a little.

They sat together, just holding each other for ages. Even after they had both stopped crying and their faces were dry, they continued to cuddle. Louis buried his head into Niall’s shoulder, and Niall ran his hand down Louis’ back comfortingly; they fit together like pieces of a puzzle and they just felt right together. Niall just needed to sit and hold Louis tightly, as his thoughts went over that fateful day.

The sound of the front door opening is what disturbed them. Louis jumped back, and clambered off of Niall’s lap faster than Niall could blink. Niall suddenly felt cold without Louis’ presence pressed up against his, but didn’t pull him back to him like he wanted to. He couldn’t help but smirk lightly at the red blush that filled Louis’ face and travelled down his neck.

“Dada,” A young girls voice asked.

“Yeah, baby?” Mark’s voice replied. Niall had heard the approaching footsteps before the Human Omega and his two youngest children entered the house, so hadn’t been spooked when he heard the sound of the key in the lock.

“Milk?” The little voice questioned.

“Yeah baby. We’re going to get some milk and then it’s time for a nap; okay?”

Louis gulped as their voices got louder, pulling his legs in as close as he could, trying to put as much distance between himself and the blonde Alpha sat beside him.

“Nah-nah?” Ernest’s voice piped up.

“That’s right, baby boy,” Mark praised. “It’s nigh’-night time.”

Mark walked past the living room, spotting the two youngsters on the sofa. He stopped and smiled a knowing smile.

“Hello Niall,” He greeted politely.

“Good afternoon Mr Tomlinson,” Niall nodded, pulling his t-shirt down where it had risen from Louis cuddling into him.

“What are you two up too?” Mark asked, turning his glance playfully to Louis.

Louis’ eyes went wide as he vigorously shook his head.

“Nothing!” Louis denied, rather too quickly. Mark laughed, while Niall tried very hard to keep a straight face.

“Well, just keep it PG you crazy kids,” Mark called over his shoulder as he continued walking towards the kitchen.

“DAD!” Louis yelled after him, slowly turning even redder – if that was even possible.

Niall couldn’t help but hold back a loud laugh, suddenly feeling a bit better.

~ TS ~

Jay made a beeline for her mate as soon as she got home. She found him in the back garden watching the two sets of twins playing on the small climbing frame that they’d had put in a good couple of years back. Daisy and Phoebe were helping Doris and Ernest climb up the stairs and come down the slide safely.

“Hey,” Mark called softly to her, putting down his wine glass on the wooden, garden table beside him, and marking the page in his book to give his Alpha his full attention.

“Hiya,” Jay greeted, bending over to peck the Omega on the lips. “I’m proud of you.”

“You are?” Mark asked inquisitively, eyes following his mate as she took the seat on the other side of the table.

“I am,” She nodded. “Niall told me you invited him to tea tonight; I’m impressed.”

Mark basked under the praise. Niall hadn’t left long after he’d arrived home with the twins, and before he had excused himself, Mark had told him that they were having spaghetti bolognaise for tea and that he was welcome to come along if he wanted to. He wasn’t surprised when Niall accepted his offer.

“Well, I was only being polite.”

“I know,” Jay smiled. “But that’s all I ask of you. I know you find it hard, knowing that Louis’ fate has all-but been sealed… But knowing that you’re making an effort means everything to me, _and_ to Niall.”

“I’m doing it for Louis though, you know that right?”

“Of course I do hunny, but either way – I’m still proud of you,” Jay smiled happily, glad that her mate was now making an effort. Louis deserved that much.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback is appreciated!!  
> xxWildMagicxx


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Niall comes for tea at the Tomlinson's.

** Chapter 10 **

It was quiet around the table, a stark difference to the chaos that had enveloped the Tomlinson household right up until Niall had walked through the front door. It was as if his very presence demanded respect, and by god he got it without even uttering a single word.

Niall had taken Jay’s spot at the head of the table, without even asking, and had invited Louis to sit to his right. Louis knew that behaviours like that, when you were a guest in a fellow Alpha’s house, were seen as a challenge. So, when his mother had shown no signs of upset or anger, like Louis had expected, he had been utterly shocked; not even Jay’s own Alpha father could come into her house and sit there!

Mark had made his famous lasagne for tea, with homemade garlic bread and sweetcorn on the side. It appeared to be going down a treat, everyone munching away silently, not uttering a word. Even Doris and Enrest (who had chicken nuggets in substitute) ate silently, the atmosphere rubbing off of them both.

“So, Niall,” Mark started, looking confident, but not at all sounding it.

“Yes?” Niall prompted kindly, a smile on his face.

“Tell us a little about yourself.”

 _Oh god_ , why did this feel like Louis had brought his boyfriend ( _‘Mate, Louis! Mate!’ ‘Shut up Will! Not helping!’_ ) home to meet his parents for the first time? For goodness sake, this wasn’t even the first time his parents had met the blonde; and Niall was not his boyfriend! He barely knew the guy! Okay, he had been there for him through his ‘heat’ (whatever the bloody hell that was, Louis still wasn’t 100% sure; and was now too scared to look after what he had found the last time!), and they had cuddled and all that – but the two weren’t dating. As much as William protested the thought, Louis was probably never going to date Niall!

“There are many things to tell,” Niall replied with more confidence than Louis could even hope to have. The Alpha paused to take a sip of his wine. “What would you like to know?”

“What’s your favourite sport?” Mark asked politely, without even having to think about this. He had clearly planned what questions he was going to ask. “Do you like running?”

Louis furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. No one sat round this table enjoyed running, so why on earth would Mark ask such a thing?

He missed the look that his mother shot his father, a clear warning tone.

“From time to time,” Niall shrugged casually. “I prefer to run with friends.”

“Ah,” Mark nodded, heeding Jay’s warning. He went quiet, and took a mouthful of lasagne before pretending to busy himself with the twins, hoping everyone’s attention would leave his.

“Thank you for joining us…” Jay paused, as if thinking of what to call the blonde. “…Niall. It’s a pleasure to have you.”

“The pleasure’s all mine,” Niall smiled at Jay, before addressing everyone else at the table. “I’ve heard lots of good things about you all – your mother is very proud of each and every one of you and often speaks of you all while at work.”

Louis looked over each of his siblings. They all seemed to sit up straighter, and hold their heads higher. Jay looked just as proud, clearly basking under the words of this very powerful Alpha.

“You have a wonderful mother,” He went on to explain.

“She is pretty great,” Felicite agreed, smiling over fondly at the woman.

The group all made small talk until desert was presented. They were all tucking into their homemade chocolate fudge cake, and it had once again fallen silent.

Lottie, who (Louis had noticed) had been watching Niall almost continuously throughout the meal, passed the double cream to Niall when he politely asked for it. As he took the tub from her hands, their fingers brushed, and Louis felt a flare of jealousy from deep inside him. Will growled lowly in her direction, and James wolf flashed half a smile at the smaller wolf, before nuzzling closer into William, flicking his tongue over Will’s snout in a reassuring gesture.

Louis felt reassured, calm and close to Niall in that second. The mood between them both, and around the table was ruined in the next second;

“You’re kinda cute,” Lottie blurted out.

“Charlotte!” Jay, Mark and Louis cried in utter shock.

“What?” Lottie shrugged. “If Louis’ not going to tap that, then I will! It doesn’t even matter that we’re both Alpha’s!”

“Charlotte Elizabeth Tomlinson!” Jay scolded heavily, standing up. Her Alpha voice tumbled out automatically, although she knew that it would have no effect on her eldest daughter.

Louis burned bright red, turning his face down towards his bowl of half eaten cake. Niall’s large hand came to rest on his own, his thumb rubbing up and down soothingly.

“You will apologise to Niall and your brother this instant! That was embarrassing and highly disrespectful!”

Niall, and James, were used to girls falling all over them like that, but it had been a shock for those words to leave the mouth of his future sister-in-law! As much as James felt threatened, he knew that nothing would, or could, come of it and so quickly decided to settle William, who was just as shamed as his human.

“But…” Lottie trailed off with a hard glare from Jay. She sighed, a pout on her face as she turned to address the couple that were sat at the head of the table. It was as she looked over them both that she realised they were both so far gone for each other. She suddenly felt guilty for what she had just said, and worried that she may have unknowingly put a stop to whatever they may become.

“I’m sorry,” She whispered, head bowing almost automatically as Niall’s hard Alpha eyes turned in her direction. “I should never had said what I did. I really am sorry.”

“I deeply apologise for the bluntness of my daughter, Alpha,” Jay was quick to follow with her own apology. Louis knew she was talking to Niall, but to hear her call him ‘Alpha’ as if it was his title was weird and confusing; she only referred to her own Alpha father with that title. This night just kept getting weirder by the second.

“I am utterly embarrassed,” Jay continued, throwing a side glance at Lottie. “And can assure you that it won’t happen again.”

“It’s alright Jay,” Niall reassured, his hand never leaving Louis’. “Honestly, no harm done. You may sit.”

And Jay did, with an appreciative nod in the blonde Alpha’s direction.

Louis, who really was confused now, looked over to his father in hopes of getting some answers just by looking at the man. Mark looked back at him with large, sorrowful eyes. He bit his bottom lip and shook his head before looking down at the table.

“Hey,” Niall spoke quietly, and it was clearly meant just for Louis’ ears. If anyone sat around the table had heard it, the appeared none-the-wiser.

Louis quickly looked over at the blonde to find a kind smile on his face.

“How about we take a walk out back?”

And that’s how Louis found himself walking side-by-side Niall in the large garden, trying so very hard to resist threading his own hand with Niall’s.

“Your family seem nice,” Niall commented after a moment of comfortable silence.

“Yeah,” Louis nodded in agreement. “Although, it’s almost never like that. We’re a loud and proud family. It’s rare to find a moment when someone isn’t screaming.”

Niall laughed lightly, admiring Louis who seemed to just glow under the moonlight.

“And I’m really sorry about Lottie. She’s quite brash and often doesn’t think before she says things. And don’t listen to the things she said,” Louis trailed off before realising he should explain himself. He started stuttering, trying to find his words. “About me not liking you. I do like you. Not in that way! I mean, your cute and smart and funny and you make me feel all tingly and happy and warm… and oh my god why am I saying this?!”

“Louis,” Niall laughed, stopping and reaching his hand out to stop the Omega too. “Please, I don’t mind. I like you too.”

“You do?” Louis mentally slapped himself (and he’s sure William did too) at how surprised he sounded.

“Yeah. Whenever I even hear your name I get butterflies in my stomach. And that’s nothing compared to when I actually see you; I swear my tummy does somersaults!” Louis smiled at this. “But you too, make me feel happy and warm, and I swear I feel like I’m home whenever I’m with you.”

“Niall,” Louis’ breath caught in his throat as Niall brought his hand up to cup his cheek. The touch was soft and _so_ intimate in that one moment. “We barely know each other.”

“I know,” Niall admitted, because although the Alpha had known about Louis for nearly 8 years now, and had learnt as much as possible about him in that time, he didn’t really know _Louis_. “But I feel like I’ve known you my whole life.”

“Me too,” Louis whispered, and it was only then that either of them realised their heads had fallen close together.

Louis swallowed, his Adams apple bobbing. He could feel his hear thumping in his chest and it only got faster as he watched Niall’s eyes dip to his lips and back up to meet his own.

“May I?” The Alpha asked, clearly being scared of being rejected.

“Please,” Louis nodded.

With that as encouragement, Niall pressed his lips softly against Louis’ and it felt as if sparks flew; clichés be damned! The kiss was short and sweet but was so intimate, it had the two gasping for breath as they pulled apart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it seems sudden, because they barely know each other - but bare with me ;)  
> feedback is appricated!!  
> xxWildMagicxx

**Author's Note:**

> FOLLOW FOR UPDATES;  
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